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ADYENTURES 



IN 



THE LIBYAN DESEET 



OASIS OF JUPITER AMMON, 



BT 



BAYLE ST. JOHN 

II 



NEW- YORK: 4 
GEORGE P. PUTNAM, 155 BROADWAY. 

LONDON : 
JOHN MURRAY, AI-BEMARLE-STREET. 
1 849. 



-b 



i\ 



o^ 



CONTENTS, 



CHAPTER I. 



Agreeable Associations of the name Oasis — Alexander and the Oracle — 
Desire to visit Siwah — Difficulties of the Journey — Only one English- 
man had preceded me ; not a Dozen Europeans altogether — Preliminary 
Trip to the Arab's Tower — My Companions — Utility of the Knowledge 
of Arabic — Our Preparations — Donkeys — Camels — Attendants — Start 
for what the Iskenderanehs call the '' Desert of Dogs " — Last View of 
Alexandria — Coast — Valley — Reach Abusir — Giovanni Sciarabati — 
Discussions with the Bedawins — Life of Y6nus Abu Shayen— Ruins 
at Abusir — The Arab's Tower — Temple of Augustus — Traces of an 
ancient City — Illustration of Strabo — Former Cultivation of the Li- 
byan Desert — Our Tent — Night Scene — Scorpions — Hyaena — " Flying 
Serpents" Page 9 



CHAPTER n. 

Departure from Abusir— High Spirits of the Party — Picture of our One- 
Eyed Sheikh — We reach a Tent on the Sea-shore — Value of Time in 
the Desert — The Character of the Sheikh begins to develope itself— Do- 
mestic Arrangements of a Bedawin Tent — Women and Children — Mess 
of Dates and Butter — The Well of Neffe — Filling Water-skins — Yunus's 
young Wife begs us to bring him back in safety — Romantic Departure 
of the Kafila at Night — Pace of the Camel — And of the Donkey — Halt, 
and sleep in the open Air — Morning View of the Desert — Accession to 
our Party — Yunus gives a parting Benediction to his Son — Second 
Night March — Ruins of a Fortilied Camp — A Saracenic Castle — Bi- 
vouac — Well of Shemaim^h — Bad Water . . . . 21 



IV CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER III. 



Cape Glaucum of Ptolemy — Saleh makes his Appearance — Disturbed State 
of the Country — Forays of the Western Arabs — Murder of two of the 
Waled Ali — Enfeebled Authority of the Pasha — Frightful Climate of 
Siwah — Deadly Fevers reported — Caravan from Derna going " to buy 
Corn in Egypt" — A Cure for a Headache — Ruins of an Ancient City 
— Bivouac near the Well of Shegick — Marabut — Desert Water — A 
solitary Butterfly — Storehouse protected by the Ghost of a Saint — 
Curious Collection of Implements — Port of Leucaspis — Imperfect 
Knowledge of the Libyan Coast — Decay of the Province of Marmarica — 
Meet an Alarmist — Frightful State of the Country — Terror of our Fol- 
lowers — Ancient Vineyards and Gardens — Fertility of the Coast 
Valleys in former Times — Agriculture of the Bedawins — Artificial 
Creation of Alexandria — Wells and Cisterns in the Desert — Moonlight 
Deceptions — Increased Alarm of our Followers — Account of one of our 
" Libyan Nights" .... .... 32 



CHAPTER IV. 

Disobedience of Ytinus — Sultry Ride to El-Emriim — Sufferings from 
Want of Water — The Camels are indulged in a Drink — Tricks and 
Deceits of our Guides — Definition of the Word "near" and the 
" Desert Hour " — Arabs lack the Ideas of Time, Space, and Truth 
— Some of our Beans confided to a man " who drank at the Well 
of El-Emrum " — Well and Castle of Gemaima — Some travelling Be- 
dawins join our Party — True position of Gemaima Point — Observa- 
tions on the Foot of the Camel — Stony Ground — Meet a Kafila 
bivouacked in a Thicket — The Reubens and the Benjamins of our 
Days — The Bedawin Camel — Vineyards of Antiphrse — Ancient Cis- 
tern — Halt at El-Gerab — Another Kafila — Bedawin Importunities — 
Temperature — Rough Road — The Lesser Catabathmus — Cave — Diffi- 
cult Ascent — Vision of Wells and Water-Melons — Surprise an En- 
campment — Wreckers — Danger of being plundered ... 46 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER V. 



Long Halt — Necessity of a new Guide — Our Bedawins turn Shoemakers 
■ and Cobblers — Stuffing Pack-saddles — Testing Water-skins — Details on 
the Food ofjhe Bedawins — Character of the Bedawins — Observations 
on their Manners — On the Camel — State of Alarm in which I found 
the Waled Ali — Forays from the West — Commerce in the Desert — 
Costume and physical Organization of the Bedawins — Horses — Idleness 
— Anecdotes — The Settlement of Mudar — View of the Coast from 
Alexandria to Mudar, its Wells, Productions, &c. — Kassaba — The 
ancient Paraetonium — Expedition of Alexander ... 61 



CHAPTER VI. 

We leave the Coast, and strike into the Heart of the Libyan Desert — Beda- 
win mode of saying Prayers on a Journey — Ascent of a tremendous Moun- 
tain at Night — Reach a lofty Table-land — Morning — Mirage Illusions 
— Troops of Gazelles — The glittering Koom of Sheneneh — The Well 
of Seldm — Vast ancient Cistern — Visited by Bedawin Damsels — A 
tame Gazelle — Continue our Journey — Pursued by a Party of Robbers 
— Dangers of a hostile Collision — They are induced to abstain from an 
Attack, finding us prepared — They follow us — We march the greater 
part of the Night, and succeed in throwing them off our Track — Cross 
the Empty Valley and the Wady Ed-Delma — Reach the Well of 
Haldeh — Discover the Ruins of a Fortress — The Sheikh of the Well — 
Reports of the Manser, or Band of Fifty mounted Robbers . 78 



CHAPTER VII. 

March through an unwatered Wilderness in the track of Alexander the 
Great — The Devil's Water — Travelling by the Light of a Lantern — Lose 
our Way — Dangerous Predicament — Halt without Finding the Path — 
Search for it in the Morning — " The two Crows" — At length succeed in 
gaining the Track — Wayside Pillars — " The Camel's Mouth — Snakes- 
Gray Lady-Birds — Butterflies — Highest Point of the Range of Hills— 



VI CONTENTS. 

The Valley of Diamonds— Talc— Vast Beds of Oyster Shells— Illustra- 
tion of Strabo — The " Pass of the Crow" — Names of Places in the De- 
sert — Brilliancy of the Stars — Magnificent Moonlight Scene — Romantic 
Gorge — Descent to the Plain 95 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Rationale of Bivouacking — The Hill of the Cannons — A Tree in the De- 
sert — Approach of a Caravan — Alarm — Interview^ w^ith Western Beda- 
wins — Danger of Spoliation — The Date — Caravans — The Gates of the 
Milky Mountains — Architectural Appearance — Tremendous Heat — Ar- 
duous Morning's Work — Approach the Happy Valley — The " Islands of 
the Blessed" .......... 109 



CHAPTER IX. 

First Interview with the Natives — Their Physical Conformation — Costume 
— No Smokers — Sheikh Abd-el-Sayid — Visit to the Village of Garah — 
Decomposition of the Rock — Its defensible Character — Curious Mode of 
Building — Unwholesomeness — We appear in the Character of Healers 
of the Sick — Gratitude of the People — Comfortable Evening — Windy 
Night — Second Visit to the Village — Burying Place — Sheikh's Tomb — 
Ain Mochaluf — Tradition of Christian Times — Superstition — Charms 
— Incantations — Industry of the Oasis — Mat and Basket Making — Cul- 
tivation of the Palm Tree — Remains of an Ancient Fountain — " Alfn 
Faris" — Other Ruins — Character of the People of Garah — The Wander- 
ing Blacksmith — Weapons — Wolves — Tribute to the Pasha — Dispro- 
portion between the Sexes — Women brought from Egypt — Number of 
Palm Trees— Trade, &e. ....... J21 



CHAPTER X. 

Affectionate Farewell of the People of Garah — A Siwahi joins our Party — 
Ascent from the Valley — Beautiful Sunset — Dismal Gorges — Lofty 
Table-land — Temperature 102° in the Shade — Nugb-el-Mejebbery — 
Legend of Brigand Bedawins — The Gates of the Oasis — A Caravan of 



CONTENTS. VU 

Oasians — Interview — Enter the Valley — Beautiful View — Our first 
Reception — Reach a Spring — Another Caravan — Halt near a Hamlet 
— Presents sent to us — We find we are not welcome — Their Ethno- 
logical Ideas .......... 140 



CHAPTER XL 

Push on to the Capital, Siwah-el-Kebir — Pass the Mountain of the Dead — - 
Description of the City of Salt — The Siwah Rabble collects — How we 
were stared at— Ghomy Bigotry of the People — Their Appearance and 
Costume — An Egyptian Trader — Visit to the Catacombs in the Moun- 
tain of the Dead — View from its Summit — Scenery of the Oasis — 
Available Land of the Oasis — The Grand Divan of Siwah — Delibera- 
tions concerning us — We are refused admission to the Inner Town, on ac- 
count of its being the Common Harim — General Ill-treatment — A polite 
Sheikh . . 152 



CHAPTER Xn. 

Visit to the Temple of Jupiter Ammon — Description of the Sanctuary — 
Hieroglyphics — Images, &c. — Reflections — The Fountain of the Sun — 
The Palace of the Ancient Kings — Subterranean Passages — See some 
Women — Their Costume — Ride to the Catacombs of Sid Hamet, and 
climb the Five-peaked Mountain of Edrar Abou Bryk — The Tribe of 
" Ropemakers" — Large Sepulchral Chambers — Civil Arab — Return to 
the Encampment — Popular Feeling against us — A Burial at Night — 
Ride across the Salt Lakes to the White Mountain and the City of the 
Greeks — Ruins of Temples — Catacombs, &c. — Theological Conversa- 
tion — The Two Columns — Bird's-eye View of the Oasis — Raisins, 
&c. — Return — Further Explorations — The Date Market — Varieties of 
Dates 168 



CHAPTER XIIL 
Sketch of the History of Ammonium 189 



Vm CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Observations on the Language, Manners, Appearances, Origin, &c., 
of the People of Siwah — The Productions of the Place, its Com- 
inerce, &c 209 



CHAPTER XV. 

The bigoted Party make an unprovoked Attack on us at Night and fire 
into our Tent — We obtain an Apology — Preparations for our Return — 
Arrival at Garah . . ... . . 220 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Forced March lo Alexandria — Sufferings from Hunger and Thirst — 
Various Incidents — Our Kafila once more in Danger of being robbed — 
Safe Arrival at Abusir 233 



ADVENTURES 



LIBYAN DESERT 



CHAPTER I. 

Agreeable Associations of the name Oasis — Alexander and the Oracle — 
Desire to visit Siwah — Difficulties of the Journey — Only one English- 
man had preceded me ; not a Dozen Europeans altogether — Preliminary 
Trip to the Arab's Tower — My Companions — Utility of the Knowledge 
of Arabic — Our Preparations — Donkeys — Camels — Attendants — Start 
for what the Iskenderanehs call the " Desert of Dogs " — Last View of 
Alexandria — Coast — Valley — Reach Abusir — Giovanni Sciarabati — 
Discussions with the Bedawins— Life of Yunus Abu Shayen — Ruins 
at Abusir — The Arab's Tower — Temple of Augustus — Traces of an 
ancient City — Illustration of Strabo — Former Cultivation of the Li- 
byan Desert — Our Tent — Night Scene — Scorpions — Hyaena — " Flying 
Serpents." 

We have all, no doubt, at some period of life suffered our 

minds to dwell with pleasure on the idea of an oasis — an island 

of verdure amidst a sea of sand. There is a sentiment in our 

nature which renders such an idea peculiarly agreeable in 
1* 



10 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT, 

itself; and I am sure it can never be called up except in com- 
pany with numberless delightful associations. In the case of 
the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon, poetry and history have com- 
bined to shed their magic influence around it. Some of our 
very earliest notions of geography are derived at school from 
the classic descriptions of the Libyan Desert, clipping round 
with its tawny expanse the green spot of earth to which the 
world's conqueror, Alexander, journeyed in order to hear from 
a mysterious oracle the fable of his divine origin. 

1 had long cherished the desire to visit the Oasis of Siwah 
— now proved incontestably to have been that of Ammon — but 
was deterred by the difficulty of the undertaking, the imperfect 
accounts that could be obtained of the nature of the tract to be 
traversed, and the want of suitable companions. Not a dozen 
Europeans had ever before, to my knowledge, penetrated so 
far in that direction into the Libyan Desert, and only one En- 
glishman. It appeared, therefore, at first a very serious affair. 
However, during a trip made by myself and a few friends to 
the Arab's Tower in the spring of 1847, we fell into conversa- 
tion with some Bedawins on the subject, and, talking it over in 
the course of the summer, began gradually to look upon the 
excursion as very practicable. When autumn came, accord- 
ingly, it required merely the suggestion that if we delayed any 
longer the rains might interpose, and render the coast portion 
of the road impassable, to make us suddenly resolve on start- 
ing. My colleagues in this expedition were three — Messrs. H. 
Lamport, T. Forty, and N. Longshaw — all residents in Egypt 
and acquainted with the Arabic language. In making ou.^' 
preparations we went on the principle of taking with us as few 
encumbrances as possible :-^one tent, a niat, the means of pre- 



START FOR THE DESERT. 11 

paring tea and coffee, with a quantity of charcoal, a carpet-bag 
or portmanteau apiece containing changes of linen and various 
articles of utility, a number of tins of preserved meat, a sack 
of biscuit, a couple of cheeses, some brandy, some porter, a 
plentiful supply of tobacco and cigars — all these things and 
others were admitted, but only after due deliberation. The 
great difficulty was the water and the food for our donkeys, 
upon which animals, like true Egyptians, we determined to 
cross the Desert. To camels none of us was accustomed ; 
and without previous practice it is not pleasant to mount them 
during a journey of seven or eight hundred miles. We were 
of course to be accompanied by some of these valuable crea- 
tures, which generally find food by the wayside, and never 
require to be refreshed from the scanty reservoirs they carry 
on their backs. The only attendants taken were two Arab 
lads, whose business it was to see after the donkeys and make 
themselves useful in various ways ; but having no wish to 
travel as satraps, and knowing the importance of every mouth 
less in waterless tracts, we cheerfully anticipated a good deal 
of work ourselves. It was, moreover, a great comfort to us 
that we were not compelled to look at the people we encoun- 
tered through the stupid medium of a dragoman. 

We started from Alexandria early on the morning of the 
1.5th of September, 1847, and presented, I have no doubt, a 
pretty motley appearance. Each had taken his own precau- 
tions against the burning sun of the Desert ; but, some respect 
for public opinion still remaining, we did not come ou1»in all 
our comfortable originality until further advanced on the jour- 
ney. Besides the animals we bestrode, there were six donkeys, 
two mules, and a pony, to carry our tent, our provisions, and 



12 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

the provender for our cattle, (which last item alone weighed, 
when complete, nearly half a ton,) as far as Abusir. A crowd 
of men and boys likewise accompanied us to that place — to 
most of them a perfect terra iiicognita ; — all looking, no doubt, 
with compassionate contempt on their fellows, who had under- 
taken to follow us into the gloomy depths of that savage region 
which they sometimes, for want of a better name, call the 
Desert of Dogs ! 

I shall not dwell on that day's ride. We soon passed the 
Necropolis, the new fortifications, the quarries of El Delcale ; 
and having turned to take a last view of the tapering minarets 
and whitewashed palaces of Alexandria, with its broad port 
crowded with tall-masted ships, or dotted here and there by 
white lateen sails just swelling beneath a breeze that crisped 
the surface of the sparkling waters, left Marabut island on our 
right, and entered a long narrow valley running parallel with 
the sea. It is formed by a low ridge of white rock and sand 
rising from the beach, and by a somewhat loftier line of hills 
that acts as a sort of dike to Lake Mareotis. Here the Desert 
may be said to begin, although a i^y^ patches of vegetation, de- 
pendent on wells, do afterwards occur. We stopped at noon 
to lunch, with the thermometer at 106° in the sun ; and a little 
before sunset pitched our tent at Abusir, known to Mediterran- 
ean mariners as the Arab's Tower. 

We had nov^ reached the real starting-point of the expedi- 
tion. The most important arrangements — namely, those with 
reference to the guides and camels — still remained. Signer 
Giovanni Sciarabati, Nazir or superintendent of the quarantine 
station at this place, was supposed to be the fittest person to 
perform the duty of selection from the various candidates that 



THE GUIDES. 13 

might present themselves ; and he had kindly offered to point 
out which among his neighbors was the least of a rogue and 
had cut fewest throats. From the correspondence we had had 
with him, indeed, we had been induced to expect to find every 
thing ready against our arrival, so that we should be able to 
start next day. Matters, however, are not so managed in the 
East. The worthy Nazlr had perhaps'done his best, but that 
was next to nothing. 

It were needless to enter into all the details of our negotia- 
tions. Suffice it to say, that after the customary display of 
cunning and duplicity — after quarrelling about the water- 
skins, about the food of the camels, about the price we were to 
pay — and after fifty alarming speeches about the enormous dis- 
tance of the place we were going to, about the dangers of the 
journey, the disturbed state of the road, and the deadly fevers 
of Siwah — the two Bedawins, belonging to the tribe of the 
Waled Ali or Children of Ali, who had originally undertaken 
to conduct us, and whose names we had had included in the 
firman, or passport, procured from Zeki Effendi, agreed to stick 
to their original bargain and start with us on the morning of 
the eighteenth. 

Sheikh Yunus Abu Shayen and his companion Saleh de- 
serve to be delineated by a more skilful pen than mine. I do 
not pretend to do justice to their characters. The reader must 
appreciate them himself as the narrative proceeds. Yunus 
had been a man of consequence in his tribe. His worldly pos- 
sessions included forty camels, three hundred sheep, and I 
know not how many goats ; he had stores of sesame and other 
grain ; and sixty thousand piasters was the price of the orna- 
ments of his women. But there had been a dark spot in the 



14 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

old Sheikh's life. Arnaout soldiers had taken up their quar- 
ters at his encampment. There had been a quarrel and a fight, 
or a murder. Three lives were lost in or near his tent. What 
part he himself took does not exactly appear. He says he M^as 
absent in Alexandria, that another man was guilty. The Pasha, 
however, formed a different opinion. Most of his property was 
seized ; and he became a fugitive, hiding amidst rocks and 
caves. For eighteen months — such is his boast — he evaded 
the vigilance of " Mehemmed Basha's" myrmidons; until in 
fact another man was caught and hanged for the offence. Then 
he began to appear again in the world, to collect the scattered 
remnants of his fortune. But although the hunt after him had 
ceased, he never again ventured to enter Alexandria ; and 
always lived in a mysterious sort of way in the neighborhood 
of Abusir, ready at the first alarm to decamp or creep into 
some of the caves or catacombs which there abound. 

Such was the sort of person under whose guidance we were 
to perform our journey ; and his good conduct to us was expect- 
ed by himself and friends to prove a sort of stepping-stone on 
his return to wealth and power. For Yunus was ambitious, 
and even in the midst of his fallen fortunes looked forward to 
becoming at some future day the chief of one section at least of 
his tribe. Saleh was his cousin, a person of much inferior 
pretensions and quite subordinate in every respect to his great 
relative. We were to hire two camels from one and three 
from the other. 

During the time we were waiting the pleasure of these gen- 
tlemen I took occasion again to examine the ruins of Abusir, 
upon which 1 do not think that sufficient attention has been be- 
stowed by travellers. Their vast size and imposing appear- 



RUINS OF ABUSIR. 15 

ance have not succeeded in drawing tourists out of the common 
track, although they are the only remarkable ancient remains 
in Egypt north of the Pyramids ; and Mr. Browne — the disco- 
verer in modern times of the Oasis of Siwah — though he must 
have passed them on his road, does not even deign to mention 
their existence. Situated, however, on the crest of a steep 
ridge of hills, they have always been considered as important 
landmarks for vessels approaching Alexandria from the west. 

As soon as you have proceeded half way along the valley 
that leads from El Delcale to Abusir, these majestic ruins 
come in sight ; and remain in view, often raised high in the air 
and thrown into fantastic forms by the mirage, durino- the 
whole remainder of the journey. At first there appears to be 
only one pile of buildings ; but the Arab's Tower, properly so 
called, soon becomes distinguishable from the great quadrangu- 
lar structure that rises about a quarter of a mile to the west. 
The tower itself is of a singular form, square at the base, then 
octangular, then round. It would seem that formerl}'- the 
upper portion was considerably loftier than at present, and in 
shape like a column, but it is now broken and ruined. The 
base and first division would still be perfect had they not been 
purposely broken to discover some hidden cavity or means of 
ascending to the summit, in which the searchers failed. After 
attentive examination, however, on the occasion of our first 
visit, Lamport distinctly traced the remains of a staircase, 
which had formerly existed on the northern face. I am dis- 
posed to think that this construction was originally intended for 
the purpose it now serves, namely, as a landmark. Probably 
also it had a light. Underneath is a chamber in the rock, with 
an entrance from the south ; which, although I am told it was 



16 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

opened in modern times, I believe to be of the same period with 
the catacombs which are to be found on all sides. 

The path from this place to the Temple of Augustus — for 
such is supposed to have been the nature of the other building — 
is along the edge of extensive quarries. The temple has a 
semi-Egyptian character. It is a hundred paces square, and 
consists at present simply of a ruined inclosure of solid masonry 
with two side-entrances, and a pylon. The latter, which is 
turned due east and in pretty tolerable preservation, still rises 
to the height of more than forty feet, and contains numerous 
small chambers and staircases leading to the summit, whence 
a splendid view of the sea to the north and a series of desert 
valleys to the south may be beheld. Inland to the westward is 
a small half-dried lake, and to the eastward the great salt 
marsh of Mareotis stretches in the direction of Alexandria. 

Within the temple are two openings leading to a cistern ; 
and this, as well as several other circumstances, leads me to 
suppose that it was sometimes used as a citadel. There were, 
evidently, at one period, buildings of more than one story sup- 
ported against the internal face of the wall, as lines of square 
holes, cut to support rafters, testify. We noticed that the 
western or back wall was composed in part of pieces of co- 
lumns sawn into proper lengths, with the interstices filled up 
by cement. A squared stone facing, however, both outside 
and in, had formerly concealed these incongruous materials, 
which doubtless belonged to some building of a much more 
ancient date. It is to be observed that no traces of inscriptions 
or sculpture now appear either in the temple or in the neigh- 
borhood, a fact partly to be accounted for by the softness of 
the greater portion of the stone, the face of which is often com- 



TRACES OF AN ANCIENT CITY. 17 

pletely destroyed. Some blocks had been much less solid than 
others, having actually been eaten out of the wall by the at- 
mosphere, leaving apertures like windows. I should add that 
M. de Laurin, Austrian Consul-General at Alexandria, pos- 
sesses a small statue of Victory and a head of Augustus in 
marble, found by some excavators here. 

The ancient city of Taposiris, or, as some call it, Plinthine,* 
occupied the whole width of the valley south of the tem- 
ple. It was evidently at one time a very extensive place. 
Traces of large buildings of solid stone- work, among which are 
probably the foundations of the baths attributed by Procopius 
to Justinian, walls, towers, an odeion, and the lock of a canal 
with a double dike, by which water from the Nile was dis- 
tributed through the gardens, are to be made out very clearly, 
although a mere cursory glance from the brow of the hill re- 
veals nothing but a patch of desert covered with mounds and 
sand. About an hour's walk from the temple, beyond the 
limits of the city, is a ridge of hills containing some large cata- 
combs, and a very extensive and deep.excavation in which the 
workmen of old had commenced rooms and galleries of tolera- 
bly regular architecture. I am inclined to think this to be the 
precipitous place mentioned by Strabo as being near Taposiris, 
and resorted to at all seasons of the year by pleasure-parties of 
every description. It is sufficiently solitary and deserted now. 
Vast masses of brushwood choke up what may have once been 
a garden ; human visitants are no doubt rare ; and when I be- 
gan to descend the rugged path that leads to the bottom, there 

* Plinthine must have been close by, on the coast. Taposiris is evi- 
dently the origin of the name of Abusir ; and is expressly mentioned as not 
being immediately on the borders of the sea. 



18 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

was a tremendous rush of wings, and a huge flight of doves 
burst up on all sides as from the enchanted well in " Don 
Quixotte." I was soon left alone to pursue my examination 
of this curious chasm, unless I may count as companions the 
innumerable lizards that perpetually glanced athwart the vast 
rocks that encircle it, or rustled amidst the grass and weeds. 

When I was more advanced in the Desert, as the series of 
ruined towns we there found presented itself, many reflections 
occurred to me on the nature of the cultivation by which in old 
times they must have been supported, at least in part. The 
traces of water- works presented near Abusir, with what we 
find in old writers concerning canals that branched off down 
these valleys into the very heart of the Libyan Desert, may in 
part serve as an explanation. It will be seen, however, that I 
came to the conclusion that the old cultivation was supported 
in a great measure by water derived from springs, wells, and 
cisterns, dried up and abandoned during the decay of civiliza- 
tion consequent on the Saracen conquest, or more probably on 
the decline of the original Muslim enthusiasm. 

Our tent was pitched on the brow of the hill just beneath 
the northern gate of the temple, on a small clear space, sur- 
rounded by fragments of the wall, hurled down by the un- 
sparing hand of time. The narrow valley that stretches 
parallel to the coast for about fifty miles from Alexandria, and 
a ridge of dazzlingly white hills composed of rock and sand, 
lay between us and the sea. The scene, though simple in ele- 
ments, was sufficiently beautiful ; and we could never weary 
of beholding at evening the unclouded sun stooping gently to 
the horizon, and then assuming all sorts of fantastic shapes — 
now a fire balloon, now a dome of flame — ere it descended and 



SCORPIONS HY^NA FLYING SERPENTS. 19 

left US to enjoy the sweet, though brief, twilight and the gentle 
rays of the moon. At these times it was that the great ruin^ 
near which we were encamped, assumed its most imposing 
aspect, and when the long jagged line of is ruined wall crown- 
ing the steep acclivity awakened sensations almost approaching 
to the sublime. I am sorry to say, however, that these are not 
the things which have dwelt most strongly on my memory. 
The social evenings, mingled with serious conversation on the 
conduct of our coming excursion, v/hich we there enjoyed, will 
always be remembered, by me at least, with chiefest pleasure. 

During a former visit one of our attendants had been stung 
in the little finger by a scorpion : he bound the offended part 
round with twine, and next day was well. On the present 
occasion a similar accident happened, and a new kind of cure 
was equally effectual. The wound was in one of the toes ; 
and a few gashes with a penknife beneath were thought to let 
out the venom. At any rate, in both cases, the inconvenience 
suffered was but temporary. These scorpions are found 
wherever there are a great number of stones that have long 
been undisturbed. It is very rarely that their bite proves mor- 
tal in Egypt, though I have heard that it sometimes does so. 

An animal, supposed to be a wolf or a hysena, paid us a 
visit one evening. A little noise frightened him, and he sneaked 
off faster than he came. I mention the circumstance because 
this was the only occasion in which we saw any thing like a 
wild beast during the whole of our journey through a country 
which poets, especially those of the eighteenth century, have 
combined to represent as infested with monsters of every de- 
scription. Some old writers have talked of flying serpents, and 
a former Nazir used to tell of one which he beheld winging its 



20 ADVENTUKES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

way from the Arab's Tower to the Temple of Augustus ; but 
we were not equally fortunate. In part compensation the 
neighborhood of Abusir is peopled with immense numbers of 
hawks and kites ; and many small owls came out in the evening 
gravely to survey the strangers from the edge of the ruin. 



DEPARTURE FROM ABUSIR. 21 



CHAPTER II. 

Departure from Abusir — High Spirits of the Party — Picture of our One- 
Eyed Sheikh — We reach a Tent on the Sea-shore — Value of Time in 
the Desert — The Character of the Sheikh begins to develope — Domestic 
Arrangements of a Bedawin Tent — Women and Children — Mess of 
Dates and Butter — The Well of Neffe — Filling Water-skins — Yunus's 
young Wife begs us to bring him back in safety — Romantic Departure 
of the Kafila at Night — Pace of the Camel — And of the Donkey — Halt, 
and sleep in the open Air — Morning View of the Desert — Accession to 
our Party — Yunus gives a parting Benediction to his Son — Second 
Night March — Ruins of a Fortified Camp — A Saracenic Castle — Bi- 
vouac — Well of Shemaimeh — Bad Water. 

It was not until the morning of the 18th that all was ready for 
our departure. We had been compelled to send back to Alex- 
andria for an additional supply of beans and water-skins ; and, 
as will readily be supposed, our impatience was at its height. In 
vain we wandered about and tried to take interest in the ruins, 
in quail-shooting, in visiting the Nazir at his little whitewashed 
house, in looking at the small hamlet where the soldiers belong- 
ing to the station lived with their families. We rejoiced in none 
of these things, partly because we had seen them before, but 
chiefly because we were eager to leave all traces of civilization 
behind us, and plunge into those vast and silent regions where 



22 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

only wandering hordes of Bedawins are ever to be encountered. 
At length, as T have intimated, the wished-fbr day arrived, and 
we were on foot as usual before the sun, and down in the misty 
valley by the well to perform our ablutions — a luxury which we 
might not always be able to enjoy in the Desert. Four camels", 
with old Yunus, soon made their appearance ; and, after a great 
deal of bustling and shouting, all our traps, including the pon- 
derous supply of beans and a huge bag of chopped straw, were 
properly distributed. Having requested to know Signer Sciara- 
bati's commands for Siwah, we mounted our donkeys in full tra- 
velling costume ; and, followed by Derwish and Saad, our attend- 
ant Egyptians, who allowed themselves the occasional use of two 
spare animals, which we took with us in case of accidents, be- 
gan to move down the valley to the west. All were in high 
spirits as if starting on an ordinary pleasure excursion ; and 
there was a free interchange of cheering remarks and merry 
gibes. Behind us, at a little distance, came the creeping cam- 
els, urged on by two young sons of the Sheikh, who himself 
bestrode a steady-footed horse with a Mamluk saddle and shovel- 
stirrups. At his back was slung the never-forsaken long gun, 
and a monster pair of pistols adorned his belt. Altogether, 
with his toga-like blanket, and tarboosh encircled in honor of 
our departure with a bright Hejazi shawl, one corner of which 
depended from his shoulders, with his gray beard and single 
eye, he looked a very picturesque old object. 

We followed the valley, which here is full of shrubs, for 
about an hour, and then struck off towards the shore across the 
white ridge. Flavino; once committed ourselves to the tender 
mercies of the Bedawins, we could not expect to know the rea- 
son of all our movements ; but it was not without surprise that 



THE SHEIKH YUNUS — HIS CHARACTER. 23 

we found ourselves ushered into a large tent close to the beach, 
where we were invited to occupy a kind of divan, composed of 
mats and carpets, that had been prepared for our reception. 
In any other country our guide would have taken the trouble 
to inform us that he wished us to be content with our day's 
work, that his own preparations were not quite complete, and 
that old Selah, his destined companion, had not hitherto made 
his appearance. But Ytinus would have considered his dignity 
sadly compromised by so doing. He had undertaken to conduct 
us in safety to a certain place, and he expected all details to be 
left to him. The value of time he could not appreciate other- 
wise than by counting his skins of water in a desert without 
wells. As to our having a will of our own, a preference for 
motion or rest, that was contrary to any crotchet of his, or any 
independent ideas of comfort and propriety, the very thought 
seemed to excite in his mind a degree of comical astonishment 
and perplexity. A bale of goods, in his estimation, might as 
well have had its peculiar notions about the way in which 
it was stowed aboard ship. When, therefore, after sitting 
some time under his woollen roof, we began to show signs of 
restlessness, and ask a variety of what he must have deemed 
impertinent questions, he seemed to get very embarrassed, and 
to experience feelings fluctuating between anger and contempt. 
So early on the journey, however, prudence dictated to him a 
mild course of proceeding, and he was content to put us off 
with sm.all excuses and promises. In the course of the day, 
one of his sons, a short boy, with a long gun slung over his 
shoulder, and mounted on a tall horse, was sent in search of 
Saleh. These Bedawins, by the by, as soon as they can walk, 
have a gun put into their hands : it is their first and only toy, 



24 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

and they charge and uncharge it with the same scrupulous 
care which they observe in their fathers. 

In spite of our impatience, we did not spend an unpleasant 
day in the Sheikh's tent. It was a good opportunity of wit- 
nessing the details of desert life ; for after a little curiosity and 
peeping and whispering among the various members of the 
family, our existence seemed soon forgotten, and every thing 
went on as before. There were three women in the tent, un- 
veiled, and passably ugly, and dressed in some respects like the 
Fellahee women, but more heavily, and Mdth their blue shirts 
confined by a cord or girdle at the waist ; and there were five 
young children, all of them nearly naked, and some rather 
good-looking. The tent was a spacious one of an oblong shape, 
with the ends closed, but open at both sides, so that a deliciously 
cool breeze swept through it from the sea. It was divided, as 
it were, into two apartments by one of those long cradles, called 
tachterwans, with a framework cover to support some kind of 
awning, in which the weaker members of a Bedawin family 
frequently travel on a camel's back. For want of a better 
name I shall designate it in English as a camel-howdah. Sev- 
eral old guns and gun-barrels stood in it, and some bags of 
wool and piles of blankets completed the partition, which, 
combined with our politeness, was sufficient to protect the ladies 
from too curious a gaze. However, they cared little for us, 
working away at their hand-mills, with which they were split- 
ting beans, scolding the children, collecting the camels and 
giving them food, and performing various other domestic offices. 

As it was necessary that we should eat under the roof of 
our guide, he offered and we accepted a bowl of dates mashed 
up with samn6 (clarified butter,) one of the most disgusting 



ROMANTIC DEPART [JRE. 25 

messes it ever fell to my lot to taste, although, in the spirit of 
true Oriental compliment, some of us ate more than one hand- 
ful. In short, we endeavored to make ourselves as agreeable 
as possible, hoping to induce him to quicken his movemenls ; 
but here we made a slight miscalculation. He accepted our 
civilities, smoked our pipes, and remained immovable, coolly 
patching up an old wooden bowl and twisting ropes of palm- 
fibre for a dooloo or well-bucket of hide. At length, towards 
the afternoon, in token of displeasure, we abandoned the tent, 
which we had defiled by eating a lunch of cold ham, and re- 
paired to the place where our traps had been deposited, near 
the well called Bir-en-Neff6, situated in a terrifically hot hol- 
low about a hundred yards ofi". Here we remained until some 
hours after sunset sitting on our mat, and turning a deaf ear to 
the insinuations of the old Sheikh, who, whilst expressing his 
displeasure with Saleh, and promising to take his own four 
camels and buy another on the road, tried hard to induce us to 
wait until morning. At length, seeing we were determined to 
proceed, he sulkily filled four skins of water, and loaded the 
camels with the assistance of his young boys and two women, 
one of whom had a baby all the while slung at her back. The 
other — perhaps a young wife — interrupted her work to come to 
us and beseech us, in the melancholy lengthened tones which 
Arab women can assume at pleasure, not to extend our journey 
into dangerous regions, but to bring back in safety her Yunus, 
without whom there was no more joy for her in this world. 
Such a supplication, delivered in a sweet voice, in the midst of 
the confusion of breaking up our little bivouac, combined with the 
consciousness that we were really about to enter on a somewhat 
hazardous enterprise, and were taking away the stay and sup- 
2 



26 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

port of this desert family, was calculated rather to revive the 
ideas of romance with which I had at first surrounded the old 
Sheikh. The sinister glance of his remaining eye was forgot- 
ten ; so were his incipient arrogance, his palpable attempts at 
deception, and the vulgar reality of every thing about him ; and 
as we moved away by moonlight from the Bir en-Neffe, amidst 
parting salutations, interrupted by the whistle and the " Zah, 
zah !" with which the camels were encouraged to clamber 
over the sand-hills back towards the great valley, I found my- 
self indulging in reflections, amidst which the thought of liim 
did not disagreeably intrude. The scene was by no means un- 
romantic. An undulating surface of glittering sand and white 
stone, covered with black patches of vegetation, stretched on 
either hand. Behind could be seen the dim expanse of ihe sea 
— with the sound of its ceaseless breakers poured full upon us 
by a light breeze. In front a steep slope sank to the level of 
the narrow valley that, like a vast trench, extended its undevi- 
ating line at our feet. Beyond, casting a deep shadow, rose the 
long low range of rocky hills that continues in persevering uni- 
formity from the quarries of El Delcale to the east, with 
scarcely a variation in height or character, to the neighborhood 
of Sheikh Abd-er-rahman on the west. A moon in its first 
quarter and a profusion of stars lighted our rugged path, or no 
path, along which the steady-footed camels, with their bowsprit 
necks thrust forward, were slowly sailing, now choosing a way 
for themselves, now obeying the voice of their drivers. It was 
not long before we reached the flat surface of the valley, and 
taking a due westerly direction, began to move along it. 

I may mention here, once for all, that the pace of the camel 
is exceedingly slow, so that in a lengthy journey it must be 



RATE OF TRAVEL. 27 

calculated that the caravan moves at a rate of no more than 
two miles and a half an hour. Sometimes it falls much below 
this, especially where there is opportunity for browsing ; and at 
others, when it is necessary to push forward over a waterless 
country, they reach thi'ee and a half and even four miles an 
hour. 1 shall mention any remarkable variations in our pace, 
requesting the reader for the present to imagine us proceeding 
at something less than two miles and a half an hour. Very 
monotonous and fatiguing work it was. We rode donkeys, 
equipped in the Egyptian style when a long journey is contem- 
plated, namely, with halters ; and it being necessary, from our 
ignorance of the road, to keep in sight of the camels, we had 
the greatest difficulty in effecting our purpose. The obstinate 
brutes, little knowing what a journey they were booked for, 
would go ahead, so that we were constantly obliged to stop, and 
perhaps light a pipe, until we again saw the rear of our creep- 
ing little kafila appearing amidst the bushes, or from behind a 
swell in the ground. 

In about two hours and a half, when we were beginning to 
get used to this mode of travelling, a request was once more 
made to us to stop. The Sheikh was determined, if possible, 
to have Saleh for a companion ; but he merely said generally 
that we stood in absolute need of another camel and another 
man ; that he must go into the Desert the next day to find 
both ; and that, as there was water in the neighborhood, it was 
best to halt where we were. So we spread our mat a little be- 
fore midnight, and, wrapping ourselves resignedly in our 
cloaks, slept until dawn. 

September 19th. — More shuffling on the part of our guide 
ushered in the day. It was with the greatest difficulty we 



28 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

could get him to redeem his promise, and start in search of the 
recruit and the camel. The well talked of overnight was, ac- 
cording to the report of his two boys, choked up with sand. 
Had we not better move on another hour ? No, we would not : 
so at length, after some scowling, he mounted his horse, and, 
riding slowly up the stony ridge, halted for a short time to cast 
a searching glance over the wide expanse to the south, and then 
disappeared. 

We were afterwards told that there were ruins in the 
neighborhood, called Munchiirah, exactly opposite the dried-up 
well ; but I suppose they were far in the interior, as I climbed 
the hill, and saw nothing but a boundless undulating desert, or 
rather wilderness, beyond. A sandy earth, dotted at intervals 
of three or four feet with several dried-up ligneous plants, that 
serve at this season for fuel, with here and there a small patch 
of green bushes, is the character of the country. In the valley 
the vegetation is more abundant ; at some places the shrubs 
form perfect thick-ets : but, though there is a giant plant, re- 
sembling in the distance a small fir, I saw nothing that could 
be called a tree. 

Early in the forenoon Yunus returned with a man and two 
camels, which latter turned out subsequently really to belong 
to Saleh, who was engaged in transacting some business of 
his own, and finding we would not wait, had sent his beasts 
and a temporary substitute. Of course we were not per- 
mitted to know this, our Sheikh affecting to be very indig- 
nant with his cousin, and vowing to depart without him that 
very evening. We therefore pitched our tent* when the sun 

* Ruins of Abusir still in sight, bearing E. N. E. by N., at a distance 
of about ten miles. 



A SARACENIC CASTLE. 29 

became oppressive, and spent the heat of the day in a dignified 
repose. 

About noon the old Sheikh sat down near us, and seemed 
to attempt recovering his character by giving a long series of 
instructions and a parting benediction to his eldest son. There 
was, in spite of a slight savor of acting, something imposing 
in his manner ; and, willing to be pleased, I was again looking 
at him with respect when, catching my eye, and thinking the 
moment a favorable one, he hastily mumbled the concluding 
words of his speech, and abruptly asked if I had not an old 
pair of shoes to give him ! A negative answer, as a matter 
of course, ruffled his temper ; and he was soon afterwards 
heard cursing his first-born most heartily, threatening, among 
other things, to make a kurbeh (water-skin) of his hide. 
From that moment I confess my poetical ideas did positively 
vanish, and I looked upon the old Sheikh as nothing but an 
Ishmaelite who would act and must be treated pretty nearly as 
an enemy. 

At half-past four in the afternoon we were under way, 
with the two new camels, three of the old ones, and the fresh 
man. Yunus sent back his sons and his horse, and took, much 
against his will, to foot-travelling, diversified occasionally by 
a ride on a camel. Immediately after sunset, just as the huge 
falcons and hawks, that had been wheeling through the valley 
in keen chase of the pigeons and smaller birds that abound, 
were sailing towards their night-haunts, the valley narrowed 
to a pass, the greater part of which we found occupied by the 
ruins of a large inclosure with stone walls, now overthrown to 
the ground, but which had probably been a fortified camp. 
Three hours from this a dilapidated Saracenic castle, called Kasr 



30 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

el A maid, rising near the beach amidst the white sand-hills 
and the thickets, tempted us to ride out of our way to glance 
at it. There was something so solitary and mysterious about 
it, as it reared its ruined form near the ceaselessly rolling wave, 
with the stars looking through tlie shattered windows or be- 
tween the broken battlements, as through a Gothic building on 
an English beach — a haunted church, or a legendary castle — 
that I could scarce prevail on myself to proceed without our 
becoming further acquainted ; but it was at length determined 
to reserve a complete examination to our return, when we 
should pass by day. 

Having ridden seven hours, we stopped in a narrow part of 
the valley obstructed with hillocks. We had made up our 
minds not to take the trouble of pitching the tent during our 
night-halts ; so we had commonly nothing to do, on arriving 
tired and sleepy after a long ride, but to spread our mat, get at 
our carpet-bags for pillows, and lie down at once. Each 
person was provided, like Hassan the camel-driver, with a 
" cruse of water," qualified however with a little cognac ; and 
those who were provident generally supplied themselves before 
.starting in the daytime with a " scanty store " of provisions 
in the shape of biscuit and cheese ; this served foi: supper. 
No unpacking was allowed, as the boys were as weary as our- 
selves, and had sufficient occupation in taking care of the 
donkeys. Tobacco-pouches soon came into requisition, and 
by keeping our helms to the wind we managed to smoke in 
spite of it. 

This night was ver}^ cold • and made us appreciate the full 
virtue of our stoical resolution. We were up early, and after 
a vain attempt at making coffee went over the white hills 



DESERT WATER. 31 

towards the sea to a well called Shemaimeh, cut in the rock, 
with a hollow or trough near it for animals to drink from. 
Here we had our first taste of genuine desert water — never 
shall I forget it. I would attempt to describe it, but it is indes- 
cribable. The reader must imagine what a mixture of rotten 
eggs, brine, and the excrement of birds with water would pro- 
duce ; and he will then have a faint idea of the filthy stuff I 
ventured to put inside my mouth. The circumstance that our 
donkeys, though thirsty, had to be coaxed to wet their mouths 
and swallow a little, means perhaps nothing, as these animals 
are extremely delicate about their food and drink ; and very 
capricious too — one of them sometimes refusing to put his nose 
in the trough, insisting on having the bucket held to him. 



32 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 



CHAPTER III. 

CapeGlaucum of Ptolemy — Saleh makes his Appearance — Disturbed State 
of the Coimtry — Forays of the Western Arabs — Murder of two of the 
Waled All — Enfeebled Authority of the Pasha — Frightful Climate of 
Siwah — Deadly Fevers reported — Caravan from Derna going " to buj 
Corn in Egypt" — A Cure for a Headache — Ruins of an Ancient Citj 
— Bivouac near the Well of Shegick — MarS-but — Desert Water — A 
solitary Butterfly — Storehouse protected by the Ghost of a Saint — 
Curious Collection of Implements — Port of Leucaspis — Imperfecl 
Knowledge of the Libyan Coast — Decay of the Province of Marmarica — 
Meet an Alarmist — Frightful State of the Country — Terror of our Fol- 
lowers — Ancient Vineyards and Gardens — Fertility of the Coast 
Valleys in former Times — Agriculture of the Bedawins — Artificial 
Creation of Alexandria — Wells and Cisterns in the Desert — Moonlight 
Deceptions — Increased Alarm of our Followers — Account of one of our 
" Libyan Nights." 

PtTRsuiNG our journey, we soon found the valley stopped up 
by a series of salt lakes, the banks of which were plentifully 
crusted with a white efflorescence inte«mingled with patches of 
purple. They were divided from the sea by the persevering 
line of sand-hills ribbed with rock, which here began to rise 
higher and project so as to form at some distance ahead of us 
a point covered with dazzling hillocks. It has two or three 
small islands lying off; and is not properly marked, I think, 



DISTURBED STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 33 

in the charts of the Mediterranean. I should say it is the Cape 
Glaucum of Ptolemy. 

We had been driven from the valley by the salt-lakes, and 
compelled to ascend the southern ridge, where we had an ex- 
tensive view. Near the second lake we passed some traces of 
ancient walls and a quarry ; and having travelled four hours 
that morning, principally along the sides of stony hills covered 
with gray lichens, halted and pitched our tent at half-past ten. 
Here we were at length joined by old Saleh, who, without 
vouchsafing any explanation of his delay, came and sat outside 
our door, where he occupied himself for two hours in pulling a 
sort of phantom of a beard, which grew with the scantiness 
of desert vegetation on his withered chin, and in croaking after 
a fashion of which he had given us a specimen at Abusir. 
According to his account we were entering a very unsafe and 
disturbed country. Every one was in arms, either with inten- 
tion to rob or to repel robbery. The Bedawins of the west 
had become unusually audacious, and were constantly making 
forays on the more peaceful tribes who lived under the author- 
ity of " Mehemmed Basha," as they call the Viceroy. Only 
the day before, he said, two men who were tending camels had 
been set upon by a strong party and murdered ; and he pro- 
fessed to have seen the dead bodies brought into the tents. Par- 
ties of this dangerous description were often to be met with, 
generally ranging in numbers from seven to twenty, but some- 
times two or three hundred strong. Making due allowance for 
exaggeration, and supposing the actual outrage mentioned to 
be brought nearer to us both in time and place in order to alarm 
or discourage us, this M^as certainly an unpleasant prologue. 
We objected that such misdeeds could not be frequent, as the 
2+ 



34 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

Pasha was feared, and never failed, in case his dominions were 
trespassed upon by strangers, to make with good effect appli- 
cation for punishment and compensation to their governments. 
The reply was, that in very glaring cases notice was taken, as 
in the recent robbery of three hundred camels at the Natron 
Lakes by a tribe on their way to Bengazi ; but that numerous 
instances of complete impunity had given the robbers courage. 
In former times, when the Pasha was aiming at independence, 
nnd in his full glory, the J3esert was almost as safe as the 
Valley of the Nile; but now his rule had relaxed in severity, 
and the old regime was returning. There appeared to be some 
reason in this, so we applied ourselves to the particular instance, 
and it was argued that, if the robbery and murder had been 
committed within a few days, all the country must by this time 
be up in arms, and the brigands, fearing the consequences, must 
have made a precipitate retreat, leaving the road comparatively 
safe. This was admitted to be a good argument for proceed- 
ing, so old Saleh, who really seemed desirous of backing out 
of his bargain, tried another tack ; and, after hinting that we 
must move with loaded guns that night, began to enlarge in his 
accustomed strain on the climate of Siwah, which he repre- 
sented as so unwholesome at this time of year, that whoever 
was exposed to it inevitably caught the fever, wdiich again was 
so pernicious, that whoever caught it died ! Pleasant prospect 
this, especially as he really seemed to believe what he said, to 
be in great alarm, and asked us if we were magicians enough to 
loriie cures — that is to say, amulets. The Fatalist by profes- 
sion found no remedy in his doctrines against the instinctive 
fear of death ! 

We knew before that the date-season in the oases was con- 



MOGHUT. ^ 

sidered by no means healthy, and our previous information was 
only confirmed by the lamentations of the timid Bedawin. A 
small kafila, of eight men and ten or twelve camels, on their 
way from Derna to Alexandria to buy grain, passed during the 
conversation, and added their testimony to the uncertain state 
of the country. We wished them far enough, for they put the 
finishing stroke to the alarm of our Egyptian attendants, one 
of whom seemed seriously to contemplate a retreat. A glass 
of soda water, with a nip of brandy, insinuated under the name 
of medicine, brought him round, and served to give us a 
fresh insight into Sheikh Yunus's character. He immediate- 
ly got a headache, asked for a similar potion, exclaimed 
"Azeem!" ("Excellent!") and " Agaib !" (Wonderful!"), 
and condescendingly promised to drink a glass every day as a 
backshish. 

About sunset we started and struck into the Desert, leavino- 
the sea far on our right hand, the ridge of hills now subsiding 
into a plain covered with hillocks, in which the great valley 
that extends thus far from Alexandria is consequently lost. 
Our direction was still about W. N. W., so that, as we again 
came near the sea in a few hours' journey, we might have 
inferred, from this circumstance alone, that we were crossing 
the base of a cape or point. After three hours' ride we passed 
some ruins, or rather traces of old walls, just appearing above 
the surface of the ground. Many of these evidently belonged 
to houses, forts, &c. ; but others, which continued for the 
space of an hour and a half, were nothing but great square 
inclosures, which I suppose to have been ancient vineyards or 
gardens. This place is now called Moghiit, and our guides 
referred its oricrn to Alexander the Great. 



36 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESEKT. 

After proceeding some time by the favor of a beautiful 
moon, Yunus hinted at a stoppage, there being a well in the 
neighborhood which it was necessary to visit in the morning. 
We found our bivouac exceedingly pleasant at first. The 
atmosplicre was wonderfully pure, and the moon and stars 
shone with remarkable brilliancy. Not a sound disturbed the 
air, except, perhaps, the low tremulous shriek of a night-bird, 
the chirping of a grasshopper, or the occasional motions of our 
group of tired animals. This silence had a soothing effect, 
and we went to sleep with the impression that a thorny bush 
forms the best pillow in the world, a Levantine cocula or a 
plaid cloak the best covering, the sky the best canopy, and 
Arabs, camels, and donkeys the best companions. Some of 
these delusions, however, were dispelled by the sharp cold of 
the morning and a heavy fall of dew. 

September 21st. — The early dawn enabled us, as we stood 
shiveringly drinking our coflee, to distinguish in the distance, to 
the N. W., the glittering walls of a marabut or Sheikh's tomb, 
on the crest of a rounded hill. This is a landmark which we 
afterwards found may be distinguished at a vast distance. It 
indicates the neighborhood of the well of Shegick, near the coast, 
and the ruins of the fortress of Gobisa, inland. Two hours 
over ground covered with remains of ancient inclosures — 
vineyards or gardens — brought us to the foot of the hill on 
which the marabut is situated. Here we pitched our tent, and 
the donkeys were taken to% drink at the distant well. They 
were an hour and a half absent, but returned with a large 
demijohn of good water. This was extremely agreeable, 
as we had already begun to suffer from the badness of the 
beverage to which we had been reduced. The contents of our 



DESERT WATER MARABUT. 37 

kurhelis had become nearly as detestable as the stuff we had 
so despised at Shemaimeh. The shaking and exposure to the 
sun seemed to have brought out all its bad qualities, besides 
giving it a taste of leather, in itself very disgusting. We ob- 
served, indeed, throughout the journey, that water which was 
tolerably good when drawn from the well, acquired often a 
peculiar taste, as if flavored with rotten eggs, even if preserved 
in bottles. It all seemed liable to assume that character. Fil- 
tering through sand would correct almost any other defect, but 
had little virtue in this case. 

We noticed this morning a single brown speckled butterfly 
fluttering before us from one scrubby plant to another. It was 
a welcome sight, reminding one of gentler and more fertile 
scenes — of green meadows and pasture-lands, of hedge-rows 
and fenced gardens ; and, striking more forcibly still 

" Th' electric chain with which we 're darkly bound," 

awakened some tender associations that came gushing into my 
mind, and filled it for a time with a not unpleasing sadness. 

During our halt I walked to the mar&.but, which I found to 
be a small square inclosure, with a whitewashed wall. In the 
neighborhood was an incipient cemetery — a few Bedawin 
tombs, with sticks stuck up at the end, and surrounded, as 
usual, by an oval pile of loose stones about three feet high. 
The inclosure had a doorway in one corner, through which I 
somewhat sacrilegiously passed. Never having seen a similar 
place, my curiosity was fully gratified. A tomb of brick, 
stuccoed over Tike those seen in the streets of Egyptian towns, 
occupied the centre ; whilst around, in most picturesque con- 
fusion, were spread a variety of articles committed to the care 



38 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT.^ 

and surveillance of Shiekh Abd-er-rahnnan. There were tach- 
terwans, or, as I have called them, camel-howdahs ; the hand- 
mills used in Bedawin tents ; several pair of the enormous 
Mamluk shovel-stirrups, nearly eaten up with rust ; two or 
three large wooden bowls used to prepare jjilau or any other 
mess ; small ploughs for turning up the shallow earth in the 
Desert valleys where the Arabs grow their scanty crops of 
barley ; packsaddles ; and various household utensils. The 
place, in fact, is a regular storehouse, where such things are 
left by people passing to and fro. If they return that way, 
they may resume their property ; if not, it is allowed to decay, 
no one having the audacity to remove it, for fear of the de- 
funct Sheikh, who would certainly punish any violation of his 
sanctuary with death. From all appearances I have no doubt 
that this ghostly guardian is quite as successful in taking care 
of what is intrusted to him as the living one, who, being 
himself perhaps in the odor of sanctity, pursues the same 
occupation in the neighborhood of Abusir. The labors of the 
late Abd-er-rahman are, at any rate, more practically useful 
than those of the presiding Sheikh at Abu Mandur, near 
Rosetta, who merely professes to employ himself as Conser- 
vator of the left bank of the Nile from the sea to Atfeh, and 
to throw back with a spiritual shovel whatever sand Eblis may 
blow in from the Desert, in the vain attempt to choke up the 
river. 

From the top of the hill I could obtain a pretty good view 
of the coast immediately to the north. We started yesterday 
from a point about two miles from the sea, and soon began leav- 
ing it at a gradually increasing distance. A general west- 
northwest direction, however, had again brought us near the 



J 



PORT OF LEUCASPIS. 39 

coast. So that during a ride of seven hours we had crossed the 
base of the point which I now descried to the eastward from 
the marabut, stretching out in a northerly direction and shelter- 
ing a small curved bay with a northwest exposure, probably a 
port in ancient times. If the point be the Glaucum of Ptolemy, 
as I have surmised, this must be the port of Leucasis, or Leu- 
caspis. I could not on this occasion distinguish the low white 
islands which I afterwards saw when on returning I attentively 
examined the point from the east, though time would not allow 
me to visit it. The coast is here lined with higher hills than 
those in the direction of Abuslr. They begin to rise at the ter- 
mination of the salt-lakes ; and the most lofty overlooks the 
small bay I have mentioned ; whilst the extreme point ap- 
peared to be its northern spur gradually subsiding into the 
sea. 

My impression is, that the whole of the Libyan coast is very 
imperfectly laid down in the charts and maps hitherto publish- 
ed. A new survey ought forthwith to be made ; and no power 
has more interest in undertaking it than England. Let us 
leave the examination of the bay of Tineh and the Pelusian 
mud-flats to enthusiasts or speculators — no English merchant- 
vessel has ever sighted those inhospitable regions ; but thou- 
sands pass near the Libyan shores, and sdipwrecks are constant- 
ly occurring, not so much attributable to the currents, of which 
every body speaks, as to our ignorance of the coast, where I am 
persuaded many tolerable harbors might be found. These 
harbors existed and were frequented by a flourishing commerce 
in ancient times ; and I cannot believe that they have all become 
useless. They were only deserted gradually, as the province 
of JMarmarica — overrun by conquering armies and pressed 



40 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

upon by the wild tribes descending fronn the Ogdames and 
Nasamones of Herodotus — relapsed into the desert condition 
from which it had been reclaimed by canals from Egypt 
and colonies from the more early civilized shores of the Me- 
diterranean. 

About four o'clock in the afternoon, we started across some 
low hills, and, proceeding still in the same direction as before, 
got into an ill-defined plain with rising ground at various dis- 
tances on all sides. Near its commencement we saw a man 
with two camels to our left ; and should have passed on with- 
out communicating had he not advanced to join our Bedawins. 
Sheikh Yiinus, who already began to admit his ignorance of 
the road from the coast to Siwah, tried to make a bargain with 
this man to join our party with one of his camels to carry 
two skins of water. He did not suffer himself to be tempted, 
however, for he was going to Alexandria ; and he gave besides 
a most frightful account of the state of the country, saying 
that nothing could induce him to come and have his throat 
cut in our company. According to his story, there was es- 
pecial reason for alarm at the present moment. The Western 
Arabs had grown unusually bold ; had made several incur- 
sions ; and now infested all the roads. Every person we met 
might be an enemy. Honest people were rather inclined to 
get out of the way than to thrust themselves into the jaws of 
danger. This kind of talk began first to suggest to our two 
frightened followers the idea of an escort ; and even the Beda- 
wins acknowledged that they should feel more secure with six 
additional guns. As yet, however, we seemed to be proceed- 
ing through a country almost completel}^ desert-ed by the in- 
habitants. A solitary Bedawin, I remember, looked at us from 



AGRICULTURE OF THE BEDAWINS. 41 

the hilis on the evening we left Munchiirah ; eight wayfarers 
passed us at the salt-lakes ; and after leaving the alarmist, 
when the night had fallen, we heard in the distance to our right 
the bleating of a considerable flock of sheep, and the shouts and 
monotonous chant of the men who were driving them in the 
direction of Alexandria. 

Again, all over this plain we met large square spaces that 
had been inclosed by walls, of which the extensive ruins still 
remained. Were these spaces thus inclosed because the soil 
happened to be better than the rest of the Desert ? Were 
they designed to assist some system of irrigation ? Or were 
they merely erected as defences against wild beasts or human 
depredators 1 On one side of several of them were traces of 
ruins of a different character, as if these vineyards or gardens 
bad been attached to small villas in which the wealthy inhabit- 
ants of Marmarica chose to reside at certain seasons of the 
year. 

One thing seems pretty certain, namely, that at some period 
this country had a peculiar cultivation of its own, and sup- 
ported numerous cities and a flourishing commerce. I doubt, 
however, whether, as certain writers have supposed, this portion 
of the Libyan Desert was reclaimed by the ancient kings of 
Egypt. In Alexander's time it is mentioned, by Aristobulus in 
Arrian, as having been " a district certainly deserted, but not 
waterless ;" and I do not remember that this testimony is con- 
tradicted by any other classical writer. However, at a subse- 
quent period, finding that water will fertilize any soil, men de- 
termined to reduce this unpromising tract : and it was at length 
covered with farms, meadows, vineyards, and gardens. It is 
now almost restored to its original unproductiveness, although 



42 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

at various points we saw patches which the Bedawms had se- 
lected wherein to sow dhourra, barley, &c. The ground was 
scratched with their little plough. At sonne places we saw rem- 
nants of the spring crop, consisting of thinly sprinkled stubble 
about eighteen inches high. This cultivation entirely depends 
on the winter rains ; but in ancient times, in addition to the ca- 
nals which carried Nile water and fertility into the heart of the 
Libyan Desert, recourse was had to wells, which, I believe, 
might even now be indefinitely multiplied. In the valley be- 
tween Abusir and El Delcale, for example, there are numerous 
shadoofs, raising excellent water from wells, and supporting 
considerable patches of cultivation. On our return we found 
indeed the dhourra greatly advanced ; we saw plots of onions, 
of tomatas, &c., shaded by date, fig, and banana trees. These 
scraps of vegetation, rarely more than a hundred yards in 
length, are tended by a few half-civilized Bedawin families, 
living in tents or little stone huts, and eking out in this way 
what they gain by cutting scrub- wood for fuel, catching quails 
and other birds when in season, and otherwise supplying the 
market of Alexandria. The wells vary in number with 
their industry, and seem to be opened afresh at the approach 
of winter. 

As an instance of what might have been effected by the 
means I have mentioned, I will adduce Alexandria, which is 
situated in the Libyan Desert, forty miles from any spot of 
natural fertility. The labor of man has at length converted it 
into a perfect oasis. A vast body of fresh water is brought to 
it through deserts and salt marshes, and it is surrounded with 
exquisite gardens, vineyards, and green fields. Many expanses 
of rubbish still remain, but they are fast disappearing, and the 



BID GrRRUJ EJMINA. 4^ 

new roads in the neighborhood are rapidly assuming the aspect 
of green shady avenues. Of similar origin must have been 
the towns of Plinthine, Taposiris, Cynos-sema, Antiphrse, and 
numerous others, the traces of which now serve only as stum- 
bling-blocks to travellers in those regions. 

At half-past eight we passed near Bid Gurruj, where a 
tomb on a pointed hill overlooks a large cistern like those at 
Alexandria, and most probably of ancient construction. It is 
dry in summer, but in winter holds good water. It lay to our 
right towards the sea. I must here call to mind that we saw 
all this part of the country in going by the lighl, of the moon, 
which in these latitudes is extraordinarily deceptive. Some- 
times low mounds in our neighborhood appeared like distant 
lofty hills ; and again ridges really at a great distance seemed 
close at hand. All we could learn therefore was, that after 
proceeding half an hour beyond Bid Gurruj we came to the 
end of the plain that we entered near the marabut, and got 
among an intricate expanse of small hills covered with sand, 
and divided by narrow flat valleys. Soon afterwards we 
crossed a low rocky ridge, near which, we were told, was 
another winter well, called Ejmina, and in an hour and a half 
more reached a second ridge much more lofty and rugged, 
covered with loose stones, and difficult even for the camels. 
Just on the other side of this we determined to bivouac for the 
night and indulge in tea. We had here to physic one of our 
Assinegos, who had become quite ill through sheer fright, 
partly caused by the stories told by the strangers we had met, 
partly by the horrible exaggerations of old Saleh, who 
seemed to take a malicious pleasure in alarming one more 
timid than himself. This man was by nature half buffoon and 



44 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

half croaker ; he amused us by his money tricks, and annoyed 
us by the unfeeling delight he took in working on the mind 
of this poor lad, and absolutely depriving us of his services. 
For his own part, he seemed a little uncomfortable at the 
idea of losing his camels by the attack of overwhelming 
numbers ; and childishly terrified by the reports of the fever 
at Siwah. We afterwards had great difficulty in getting him 
to proceed. 

I shall often think of the night I spent near the well of 
Tanum. Two of the party went to sleep, whilst I and Mr. 
Lamport sat up in an unusually social temper, and, soothed by 
the fragrant pipe, and a small tumbler of hot grog, occasionally 
replenished, conversed, despite the alarmists, with great com- 
placency on our prospects. It was on such occasions as these 
that we usually compared notes as to incidents that had oc- 
curred or observations that had been made in the course of the 
day, and thus managed to clear up many points, and fix the 
result in our memories. The present, however, was, I must 
confess, one of the most agreeable of our "Libyan Nights." 
We were yet new in the Desert, and the first tumult of our im- 
pressions had hardly subsided. Our senses were wide awake 
to catch every characteristic of the scene, and seemed, if I 
may use the expression, rather balked at first by tl^e fewness 
of the objects that presented themselves to their notice. Our 
familiar companions the moon and stars, with some brilliant 
meteors that gleamed near the horizon, and numbers of those 
heavenly rockets which, say the Arabs, are hurled by angels 
guarding the gates of heaven upon demons who approach too 
near ; a ridge of rocks to the south ; to the north a broad and 
shallow valley, dim with a light mist, that remained cold and 



"hot-grog night. 4^ 

dull even beneath the shining beams that were shed from that 
Oriental sky, and scarcely allowed the shrubs and bushes to 
appear athwart it ; beyond all this the sombre sea — these, 
with the exception of the ungainly form of a camel, as, despite 
its fettered legs, it went away slowly from the bivouac to 
browse ; our little group of donkeys, the scattered luggage, 
the sleeping Bedawms and domestics, were all the objects that 
met the eye ; whilst there was nought to appease " the famine 
of our ears," as some poet expresses it, save only the shrill 
shriek or measured chirp of two Desert birds, and the monoto- 
nous chink of thousands of grasshoppers. But, if disappoint- 
ment was the first feeling engendered, a sense of the sublime — 
a perception of the simplicity of nature's operations — -a feeling 
of intense solitude — of separation from the busy nuclei round 
which men congregate — and ultimately of cheerful self-reli- 
ance, succeeded. I felt my imagination kindle, and that steady, 
enduring enthusiasm begin to take possession of my mind, 
which is the necessary companion of all who encounter fatigue, 
and even danger, actuated by the mere thirst of knowing " how 
wonderfully and strangely " God's world is constructed — what 
kind of people inhabit its remoter parts — and what the wilder- 
ness and the waterless desert have to say about the commerce 
and civilization of past ages. 



46 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 



CHAPTER IV, 

Disobedience of Yiinus — Sultry Ride to El-Emrum — Sufferings Irom 
Want of Water — The Camels are indulged in a Drink — Tricks and 
Deceits of our Guides — Definition of the Word "near" and the 
" Desert Hour " — Arabs lack the Ideas of Time, Space, and Truth 
— Some of our Beans confided to a man "who drank at the Well 
of El-Emr{im " — Well and Castle of Gemaima — Some travelling Be- 
dawins join our Party — True position of Gemaima Point — Observa- 
tions on the Foot of the Camel — Stony Ground — Meet a Kafila 
bivouacked in a Thicket — The Reubens and the Benjamins of our 
Days — The Bedawin Camel — Vineyards of Antiphrae — Ancient Cis- 
tern — Halt at El-Gerab — Another Kafila — Bedawin Importunities — 
Temperature — Rough Road — The Lesser Catabathmus — Cave— Diffi- 
cult Ascent — Vision of Wells and Water-Melons — Surprise an En- 
campment — Wreckers — Danger of being plundered. 

Having watched until the moon went down, three hours after 
midnight, we slept for a short time, and wakened to the regular 
business of the day. Whilst our traps were being loaded, old 
Yunus came up and asked us whether he should not throw 
away the remainder of the water which had been brought from 
the Bir en-Neffe. We should reach Gemaima, he said, after a 
short ride. The answer he received was, "Keep the water ;" 
but, by one of the acts of disobedience he occasionally in- 



SULTRY RIDE TO EL-EMRUM. 47 

dulged in, he immediately turned it all out upon the sand ; 
and then, with characteristic inconsistency, wanted to stop 
half an hour after we started to get a fresh supply at the 
well of Tanum, which, however, on examination turned out to 
be dry. 

The valley in which we now found ourselves was exactly 
similar in character to that between A.busfr and the salt-lakes. 
Its direction was at first W.N.W., and then changed to 
N. N. W., skirting a small curve or bay, both points of which 
were visible. The eastern extremity is marked by a pointed 
hill, occurring after a piece of low shore, where the white line 
of hillocks subsides. From the sea all this coast must have 
a very dismal uniform appearance, as the hills in the interior 
are pretty nearly of an equal height. Here commences, how- 
ever, a rather loftier desert ridge, through which we went, 
crossing valleys that lay in a N.N. E. direction, until rising 
over a rough rocky ridge, we again sighted the Mediterranean, 
and descended into another burning seaboard valley. From 
the summit a large patch of white sand-hills, that looked like 
heavy smoke beneath the fervid rays of the sun, which were 
reflected in a strange manner, was indicated to us as Ge- 
maima : it occupied the extreme end of the valley ; but we 
determined not to attempt reaching it. We were now indeed 
extremely exhausted from the heat of the sun and want of 
water, though we had been only four hours in motion, and were 
glad enough to reach, in a hollow of the white rocky barrier 
between the valley and the sea, a square well, cut deep down, 
and containing an abundant supply. The first bucketful taken 
from the surface was extremely agreeable to the palate ; but 
as soon as the well was disturbed it gradually acquired more 



48 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

and more of that indescribable taste which will ever prevent 
us from forgetting the wells of Shemaimeh. The donkeys, 
though they had not drunk for twenty-four hours, seemed little 
inclined to quench their thirst ; but the camels, poor creatures, 
having abstained since we left Abusir, and being children of 
the desert, crowded round the shallow trough cut in the rock, 
and, thrusting down their long necks and snake-like heads, 
drank eagerly ; whilst old Saleh, indulging in a queer chant, 
rendered more odd by the loss of a few teeth and the presence 
of a quid inside his lower lip, and broken by a series of con- 
ventional grunts, most industriously worked the dooloa, and 
supplied them till they were satiated. The quantity they 
drank was enormous ; though I cannot confirm the account 
contained in that " Authentic Narrative," so interesting and 
even awful to children, of Captain Riley's sufferings in Africa, 
where we are told that one camel imbibed, after twenty days' 
abstinence, the enormous quantity of sixty gallons. However, 
I think the skin bucket, containing perhaps a gallon or a 
little more, must have been filled eight or ten times, on an 
average, for each animal, and their stomachs evidently swelled 
in bulk. 

I shall here mention that all this time we had no very defi- 
nite idea of the point at which we were to turn off from the 
coast, and strike into the interior of the Desert. This was a 
matter we left to the Bedawins, who themselves did not appear 
to have quite made up their minds. For the last day or two 
they had talked of turning off at Gemaima, and would probably 
have done so had they met a proper person to act as guide. 
In that case they would, no doubt, have followed the road by 
which we returned. Failing in meeting the guide, they now 



ARAB NOTIONS OF TIME, SPACE, AND TRUTH. 49 

pretended they had always meant to pursue the coast-road for 
some distance more, and promised us a kind of paradise called 
Mudar, in which, among other things, delicious water-m^elons 
were to be enjoyed. As, however, these water-melons had 
before been attributed to a place gray eh (near) Gemaima, we 
did not allow our thoughts to dwell too much upon them, though 
we began to be perfectly aware of the elasticity of this said 
word grayeh, which in the Desert means any distance, from 
one hour's ride to three or four days' travel, just according to 
circumstances. I may here mention that, at the outset of the 
journey, Saleh used to be very positive about distances, telling 
us exactly to half an hour how long we should be in perform- 
ing them ; but at last he was driven to confess that the " Desert 
hour " was very different from the Alexandrian one, that there 
was no definite number of them in the day, and that they had 
short hours and long hours as it suited them. 

It has been observed with some severity that Arabs, to what- 
ever degree civilized, have no idea of time, space, or truth ; 
and I cannot much object to the observation. Even in Egypt, 
among persons in business, they seldom divide their days into 
hours, contenting themselves with vague approximations to sun- 
rise, noon, and sunset ; they have no term in common use 
expressive of any definite amount of distance ; and there is 
no general appreciation of a man's word. I do not mean 
that they are an utterly faithless people ; but they are not 
impressed with the moral obligation to truth. "Liar" is a 
playful appellative scarcely reproachful ; and " I have told 
a lie," a coiifession that may he made without a blush ! 

Whilst we were enjoying our '• keyf " — a word descriptive 
©f the most peifect state of indolent well-being — Sheikh Yu- 



50 ADVENTrRES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

nus went in search of one of the men who " drink at the well 
of El-Emriim," in order to confide lo him a certain portion of 
the beans we had brought for our donkeys. This was to serve 
the double purpose of lightening the camels to enable them to 
carry more water, and of securing a provision against our re- 
turn. Having succeeded in his object, the Sheikh re-appear- 
ed with some women, who shouldered the beans and carried 
them over the hill. Not being yet acquainted with the punc- 
tuality of these transactions in the Desert, I confess I had 
strong doubts of ever seeing the bags again; but from what I 
afterwards observed of the depositaiy — among other things, the 
fact that he was completely unarmed — I suspect him to have 
been a kind of saint. 

Half an hour before sunset we started, proceeding still 
along the valley. The ridge of hills which bounds it on the 
south is much more lofty than any we had hitherto seen, being 
probably four or five hundred feet high or more. Its sides are 
rugged and stony, yet with bushes here and there. An hour 
brought us to a large expanse of sand-hills, white as driven 
snow, and dotted with copses quite sloping up the valley. In 
the midst of this we were told is a well of excellent water, 
called Bir Gemaima, whilst a gorge in the hills opening im- 
mediately above leads to the ruins of the corresponding castle 
in the interior, which I had an opportunity of visiting on our 
way back. On the present occasion it was getting dark, and we 
were in a hurry to proceed. 

The white sand had turned aside the path, which now went 
along the northern slope of the ridge, covered here with com- 
paratively luxuriant vegetation, even in many places with per- 
fect thickets. The ground was torn up in a most extraordinaFy 



ET-TEEBIYAT. 51 

fashion by the torrents that escape in winter from the nume- 
rous rocky gorges that serrate the edge of the range ; and our 
kafila found some difficulty in winding along. We had been 
joined at El-Emrum by four men, a woman, and one camel ; 
so that we made rather a respectable figure, as to numbers at 
least. During the night the woman generally rode the camel, 
which had perhaps been brought for her use, and at length, 
stalking away ahead, drew her party off; and we separated for 
a time after a civil " Peace be with you !" 

An hour from Gemaima we passed another well, called Et- 
Terbiyat, from which a man brought us a bucket of the best 
water we had hitherto tasted. This occurs at the point where 
the range of hills, turning round to the northward, crosses the 
valley, and, running to a considerable distance out into the sea, 
forms a point, w hich we saw to the west when we first entered 
the valley before reaching El-Emrum. It is not very lofty, 
but has steep sides and a bluff termination. I see on the maps 
a projection called Gemaima Point, but not in this place. 
Norrie lays it down at least thirty miles too much to the 
east. 

A steep rocky ascent brought us on the top of the range, 
which we here found to form an extensive table-land, the first 
we had come to. It was flat and covered with loose stones, 
very uncomfortable for our animals, at least for the donkeys, 
the spongy foot of the camel being equally well fitted for this 
kind of travelling as for moving over sand, although I believe 
naturalists tell us that a special provision has been made for 
the latter case only. All I can say is, that, from what I have 
seen and heard, the ground which the " ships of the desert" 
have usually to traverse is very far from consisting of yield- 



52 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

ing sand. There are expanses of such a character in Africa, 
and perhaps in Arabia ; but there is at least as much stony 
desert as sandy. In the present instance the ground was 
thickly dotted with numerous arenaceous plants, so much of 
the color of the camels, that, when these animals went astray, 
it was difficult even with the aid of the moon to discover them 
at any distance. Here and there were patches of bushes of 
various extent and density. Some of them were armed with 
formidable thorns, which occasioned great inconvenience to us 
as we forced our way through them. In a considerable thicket 
of this kind we found a large drove of camels grazing ; and 
fifteen Bedawms, in their white burnooses, squatting in a circle 
on the ground, enjoying pipes and gossip. They had come 
from some place thirteen days to the west, and were going 
«' down to buy corn in Egypt," like the sons of Jacob of old, 
and were, probably, neai'ly all of one family. We frequently 
afterwards met similar kafilas of unladen camels ; and their 
drivers were almost always young men, the Reubens and the 
Benjamins of our days. In the old times the difference was 
that they went with asses ; now camels alone seem used for 
this purpose. 

The number of these animals that come annually to Al- 
exandria on the same errand must be very great. All the 
Bedawin tribes on the coast, as far as Derna, send regularly 
once a year for grain ; and the roads in the neighborhood of 
the Shunah are often dangerously crowded with large droves 
of half-wild camels, which go rushing furiously along, as- 
tonished at the noise and new objects around, and regularly 
clear the path. The Bedawin camel is much smaller than 
that used in Egypt, owing probably to the life of privation it 



ASSAMBAT SHEIKH MAHMUD. 53 

leads. Accustomed to the enormous height and gigantic limbs 
of tlie town-pampered beasts, when I first saw the genuine 
" ships of the desert" I took them for mere colts. It is true 
that they are of prodigious strength compared with their size. 

We had left El-Emrum at about half past five in the after- 
noon, and travelled a little more than five hours at rather a 
rapid pace. Just before halting for the night we passed the 
traces of a city called Assambat, which in some respects 
answers the description of ancient Antiphree. The inclosed 
pieces of land to be found on all sides were very probably the 
vineyards that produced the wretched wine, in great part com- 
posed of salt water, for which the place was celebrated among 
the wits and comic poets of antiquity. 

Half an hour after we started next morning (the 23d) we 
came to a large patch of gigantic wild sage, now in seed, and 
a copse, at the mouth of a narrow gorge which afforded us a 
sight of the sea. In this gorge is said to be a well called 
Gosambal. About two hours more over the same table-land, 
which is three or four hundred feet above the level of the 
sea, and covered at intervals with hills, brought us to Sheikh 
Mahmud, a marabut, on a small eminence with several tombs 
around. Beneath it, near the road, is a half artificial, half 
natural cistern in the rock, with a small square mouth, but 
widening as it descends. It is said to contain water in the 
winter season, and I have no doubt dates from ancient days. 

In an hour and a half more we approached the edge of the 
table-land, and halted in sight of the sea. In the neighbor- 
hood was a well called El-Gerab, at which our donkeys went 
to drink. The report was that the water was very sweety 
which made us regret we did not get a fresh supply. Our 



54 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

Icurlehs contained nothing but a .filthy infusion, ahuost im- 
possible to swallow. Necessity, it is true, had been the mother 
of a desert filter, which was partially successful. 

The halt at Rir el Gerab will always be considered by our 
party as rather a memorable one. It was on this occasion 
that we shut the door when the steed was stolen. With due 
consideration for our healths we had provided a certain quanti- 
ty of brandy, carefully decanted into a number of large tins, 
which had been rather unceremoniously pitched into a bag by 
" uncle Yunus," as the boys with grim civility called him. 
We here found that the solder could not stand the heat, 
and had gently given way, allowing about two quarts of the 
precious liquid to trickle forth and bedew the sands of the 
Desert. A great deal of activity was accordingly displayed 
in putting what remained into some bottles which v\^e had 
emptied of beer, and many excellent resolutions to be moderate 
were expressed. 

A small kafila of unloaded camels passed us here on its way 
to Alexandria to buy corn. Some women that accompanied it 
seemed disposed to be familiar, and one of them asked for bit- 
ters to put on her nipple to assist in weaning her child. It is 
another characteristic of the Arabs to beg for every thing they 
see, or that they think you may possess, to take it without 
thanks, and rarely to offer a return. Not perhaps that they 
are absolutely ungrateful, but they are absorbed by the plea- 
sure of possessing what they desire, and are generally too poor 
to make an acknowledgment. We never scarcely met a Beda- 
win in the Desert — to say nothing of the acquisitiveness of our 
friend Yunus — without having a request preferred, sometimes, 
it is true, in a tone that might have meant command. On one 



t-EMPERATURE. 55 

occasion, I remember, we were importuned for powder. Tliere 
had just been something like an alarm ; danger seemed thick- 
ening around us, and our supply was by no means large ; so 
we replied that we were wayfarers, and required what we had 
for our own defence. " If it please God, then," said a grim- 
looking desperado, " you will die upon the road !" 

In spite of our little misfortunes we enjoyed our rest at this 
place exceedingly. As I have said, the tent was pitched near 
the edge of the table-land, from which was visible the beautiful 
blue sea uncheckered by a single sail, and a long glittering 
white point to the westward running out some five or six miles. 
The air was rather cooler than we had been accustomed to, as 
there was a slight north breeze, and the thermometer did not 
rise in the tent above 82°. It is true that the contrast now be- 
tween night and day was greater than it was at Abusir, where 
we never had it lower than 72° at sunrise, or than 79° at sun- 
set, whilst it only once rose to 93° at noon, and was generally 
between 85° and 88°. Since that time the temperature of the 
morning had sunk as low as 65° and 68°, whilst at mid-day it 
was sometimes up to 91°. I must observe that these figures 
give little or no idea of the terrific heat to which we were sub- 
jected during some of our rides, and in particular places. We 
seldom exposed the tliermometer to the sun, but it once rose at 
Abusir to 128°, and I am persuaded that at various points even 
along the coast the heat was still greater. 

At about half-past four we moved in an oblique .direction 
towards the sea, descended into one of the usual coast valleys 
near a well called Grawi, and immediately afterwards began 
crossing a series of small rugged ridges, forming the base of 
what is called in some charts Praul Point. The sun set 



56 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

as we ascended the loftiest of these: but we obtained a glimpse 
of Gatta Bay, and the black rock that rises above the water at 
its eastern extremity. As night deepened, the road became 
difficult and dangerous ; the ascents and descents were steep, 
and covered with loose stones, whilst the valleys were either of 
the same character or obstructed by prickly thickets. Nothing 
was easier than for either man or beast to miss footing ; and to 
miss footing was a sure introduction to bruises and fractures. 
We were reminded of this by an increased number of the white 
bones of camels that are scattered here and there over the 
whole of this great caravan road, if road it can be called. 
These bones, glittering in the moonlight, if they did not act ex- 
actly as a memento mori, certainly impressed us with the idea 
that the camel that carried our water, or the now diminished 
store of our more potent creature comforts, might possibly come 
down. 

At length v^e reached in safety what appeared to be a plain 
or valley divided from the sea by a low line of eminences over 
which we heard the ceaseless rolling of the waves. Here we 
encountered a most extensive collection of low thorns and 
prickly bushes. It was indeed seriously feared that we should 
come off second best in the combat with this countless host of 
foes; but some by dismounting, others by very scientific navi- 
gation, managed to evade the dangers threatened by the das- 
tardly claws which were stretched forth in the darkness of the 
night to wound us. Whilst making our way along, we saw 
some forms moving ahead, two camels and two men, the latter 
bobbing down every now and then to look along the ground and 
ascertain whether we were friends or enemies. This was a 
Desert dodge which we also had learnt to practise. 



LESSER CATABATHMUS CAVE. 57 

A narrow pass, or rather cutting, introduced us to another 
plain, in which we bivouacked after five hours' ride under 
the protection of some bushes. When morning broke we found 
that the remainder of the plain was occupied with the ruins of 
a great city, above which, at a distance of about five miles, rose 
a steep range of hills with a level summit — the Lesser Cata- 
bathmus of Strabo — glittering in the rays of the morning sun, 
and seeming vastly more lofty than it really was. The emi- 
nences towards the sea, near our bivouac, Forty tells me, were 
covered with pottery ; and as we proceeded, mounds of rub- 
bish, something like those in the neighborhood of Alexandria, 
made their appearance. The foundation of massive walls, of 
round towers, of fortified gates, &c., evinced that this had been 
a place of no small importance in its time. They continued 
until we reached the bottom of the bay, opposite a line of 
breakers with two black rocks at either end, lying, say three 
miles off the shore, and pretty correctly placed in Norrie's 
chart. 

1 rode with Lamport to visit a great cave, of which we 
could see various entrances in the precipitous face of the ridge 
ahead, but somewhat to the left of our road. After having got 
entangled, however, in the rocky ravine that led to it, we found 
that we should lose the kafila if we persevered ; so, abandoning 
our intention, we climbed up part of the face of the ridge, and 
descried our camels and the rest of the party at a great distance, 
turning off towards a steep gorge. It is no difficult matter, 
however, to overtake camels, and we soon came up with them. 

A quarter of an hour more spent in struggling with the dif- 
ficulties of the ground, stumbling over loose stones, scrambling 

over rocks — all the while dragging our donkeys after us — whilst 
gt- 



59 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

the camels now and then stopped, and looked wistfully about, 
as if in complaint that they should be urged up so steep an as- 
cent, brought us to the crest of the range, from which we 
looked back over the broad bay sparkling in the morning sun, 
and smooth as may be, with the exception of the undying 
breakers on the outlying rocks; and over the ruin-strewed 
plain or valley we had traversed, bounded by a low ridge of 
hills to the south, beyond which a succession of other wide val- 
leys, in which the ridge forming Praul Point, a black horizon^ 
gradually subsides, stretched towards the south and southeast. 
The Catabathmus, which forms with its northern extremity the 
Ras Kenais of the present day, runs inland with a wall-like 
face as far as the eye can reach. 

As I have mentioned, we had made five hours in the course 
of last night. This morning we had a much more severe ride 
to perform over a stony table-land, continually ascending, and 
gradually becoming covered with hills, with here and there a 
patch of lofty barley-stubble, grown by the Bedawins for their 
horses. The sun became exceedingly powerful as the day ad- 
vanced ; and we more than once proposed to stop and seek the 
shelter of our little tent. We were hurried on, however, by 
the promises and encouragements of our guides, who now de- 
clared the same well grayeh (near), which had been so by their 
account for three days, and enlarged on the luscious water- 
melons, better than those of Brulos, which had been flying like 
phantoms before us for the same space of time. But as noon 
approached, and Yunus seemed uncertain of his direction, find- 
ing it necessary to ascend a steep hill to survey the ground, we 
b.gan to doubt in wells and disbelieve in water-melons. We 
were tired and thirsty, and the donkeys were perfectly knocked 



DANGER OF BEING PLUNDERED. 59 

up. However, as our exhausted kurlelis contained only about 
a couple of quarts of filthy liquid, which I dare not call water, 
we made up our minds to push on. dragging the weary animals 
by their halters, and at length reached the edge of the ridge, 
and obtained a view of a great bay. A steep frowning promon- 
tory formed its western limit; at the bottom was a large patch 
of white sand ; beneath our feet a plain, about a mile broad, 
stretched to the sea. Descending cautiously the rocky slope, 
we at length descried on the near side of the white sand the tall 
pole of a shadoof, which evinced the presence of cultivation, 
and cheered the close of a sultry stage of more than seven 
hours by the hopes of some refreshment. 

At half-past one we halted near a little Arab cemetery, oc- 
cupying the summit of a swell that screened us from the obser- 
vation of the inhabitants of the little dip or valley called Mudar. 
Leaving them to unload the camels, we pushed on to the first 
shadoof, which we found deprived of its rope. It now became 
evident that we had taken the little encampment by surprise ; 
men and boys were running to and fro in the fields, some driv- 
ing off donkeys, camels, sheep, and goats ; others hastening to 
snatch their guns, whilst others advanced towards us. No 
doubt, the sudden appearance of a party of Europeans march- 
ing direct into their valley must have given rise to strange sur- 
mises in their minds. Perhaps they at first took us to be the 
forerunners of some detachment of the Pasha's troops ; but 
they soon recovered from their alarm, and discovered both the 
fewness of our numbers, and our unmilitary aspect. The first 
that came near cried in a gruff voice, " What do you want ?" 
''Water," we replied. " Give us money," was the answer; 
upon which, seeing the necessity of acting with firmness, we 



60 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

informed them distinctly that we would not huy zmier, but that 
any thing else we wanted we were ready to pay for. By this 
time we were surrounded by a dozen or so of ruffianly-looking 
follows, who, perceiving that we had not come fully armed, 
talked loudly and insolently, and seemed half disposed to fall 
upon us and strip us on the spot. They now evidently took us 
for persons escaped from some vessel that had run ashore ; and 
being, like most of the Arabs on this coast, direct heirs of the 
Nasam.ones, that is to say, professional wreckers, looked upon 
us as lawful prizes. However, one of them at length thought 
it advisable to ask us whether we came by sea or land, from 
Alexandria or from any other direction. We told them that we 
were travelling with camels from Egypt, under the guidance 
of two Bed a wins who must be known to them. The names 
of Yunus and Saleh produced a good effect, and, when we 
added that we had a firman from the Pasha, all idea of hostility 
seemed to be at an end. We were still looked upon, however, 
with suspicion, and no attempt at civility was made. We re- 
turned to our encamping ground without procuring water, and 
were compelled to drink the filthy stuff that remained in the 
skins, and which, in hopes of better things, we had avoided all 
the morning. Meanwhile, a great deal of kissing and hand- 
shaking and parleying went on between these people and our 
guides ; and it was tacitly understood that a halt of some con- 
siderable length was to take place. 



LONG HALT. 61 



CHAPTER y. 

Long Halt — Necessity of a new Guide — Our Bedawins turn Shoemakers 
and Cobblers — Stuffing Pack-saddles — Testing Water-skins — Details on 
the Food of the Bedawins — Character of the Bedawins — Observations 
on their Manners — On the Camel — State of Alarm in which I found 
the Waled Ali — Forays from the West — Commerce in the Desert — 
Costume and physical Organization of the Bedawins — Horses — Idleness 
— Anecdotes — The Settlement of Mudar — View of the Coast from 
Alexandria to Mudar, its Wells, Productions, &c. — Kassaba — The 
ancient Parsetonium — Expedition of Alexander. 

Our party was by no means unwilling to enjoy a prolonged 
stay at Mudar ; for although at the outset of the journey we 
had moved leisurely enough, during the last few days we had 
worked rather hard. Since leaving Sheikh Abd-er-rahman we 
had been in motion thirty-two hours out of seventy ; which, 
considering that we had all been long subject to the enervating 
climate of Alexandria, was no small feat. I have already 
alluded to the state of the thermometer. It was often exceed- 
ingly hot, so that one hour in the dav was more fatiguing than 
two or three at night. The ostensible objects of the delay, how- 
ever, were our poor beasts, which began to find some difference 
between plying from Pompey's Pillar to Cleopatra's Needle, 



62 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

and trudging along the Libyan Desert with an insufficient sup- 
ply of bad water. 

Having now reached the place where we were finally to leave 
the sea, and shape our course across the trackless wilderness 
for the little spot of fertility towards which our desires carried 
us, that roguish individual, Sheikh Yunus, freely confessed that 
he did not knovi^ the road, at least by night, having only tra- 
versed it once, twenty-seven years before, with the expedition 
of Hassan Bey. It was accordingly determined to hire a guide, 
recommended by Yunus, named Wahsa, who was also looked 
upon as of some importance as an additional gU7i. He did not 
make his appearance at first ; so that, had we been inclined to 
start, we should have been compelled to wait his pleasure. 

As 1 have said, the best possible intelligence was soon estab- 
lished between our guides and the Mudaris, whilst we were let 
alone, or merely stared at as curiosities. The time was passed 
in considerable idleness — our labors being confined to one brief 
stroll, and to urge on the dilatory Bedawins to make the pro- 
per preparations. These gentlemen passed the greater part of 
the halt in mending their shoes, if the complication of old frag- 
ments of leather in which they shufHed along deserves that 
name. This was an occupation that gave them a good deal of 
trouble, and during our journey had to be renewed at least once 
a day. Whilst we were traversing stony tracks, indeed, the 
party was generally minus one, who had stayed behind to cob- 
ble his habouks. It is worth noticing that nearly all the Beda- 
wins wear these slippers, which, being loose and without heels, 
may partly account for their dragging and ungainly walk, 
so different from the free and bounding motions one would 
be inclined to attribute to the sons of the Desert. They 



OCCUPATIONS ON TEE JOURNEY FOOD. 63 

may be thought necessary to protect their feet from stones; 
but T suspect they are worn more for ostentation than for 
use. Our Egyptians ahnost always went barefooted. 

Stuffing packsaddles also gave our people some employ- 
ment ; but they evinced an extraordinary aversion from the 
most important piece of business, namely, mending and testing 
the water-skins. In this respect they seemed obstinately re- 
solved to trust to chance — partly from their natural indolence, 
partly because they knew that the sound skins would carry 
water sufficient to prevent the human members of the party 
from absolutely perishing, and partly because old Yunus was 
evidently bent on knocking up our poor donkeys. Through- 
out the whole journey he exhibited a m.ost inveterate dislike 
to dispense water to these unoffending creatures, and never did 
so without some explosion of ill-temper and spite. Whether 
he was annoyed at our having adopted this means of con- 
veyance instead of camels, or whether he thought it beneath 
his dignity to csirvy water for asses, does not appear. Cer- 
tain it is that he was always for reducing these poor beasts, 
accustomed to tbe luxury of two drinks a day, to the short 
allowance of Desert- donkeys, namely, a bellyful once in forty- 
eight hours. 

I must not forget to record that, as soon as we were settled, 
an inquiry was made about the famous water-melons, which 
turned out to be unripe and uneatable. The other productions 
of the place were " filfil," what we call " pepper-pods," and 
excellent onions, of which last we procured a quantity at a 
price a little exceeding the Alexandrian. It has been stated 
that the Bedawin abhors vegetables ; but this is a mistake. He 
can rarely procure them, but, when he does, relishes them ex- 



64 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

ceedingly. The inhabitant of the Desert is very much in the 
position of a mariner. His provisions must not be liable to spoil, 
and must go in a small compass. He is not by any means a 
carnivorous animal ; but lives chiefly, so far as my experience 
goes, on milk, cheese, bread, and dates. The milk may be 
either that of the camel, the sheep, or the goat ; the cheese is 
generally soft, white, and very salt, brought from Egypt ; the 
bread seems to be most commonly of wheat, ground into coarse 
flour by the women with their hand-mills, and is unleavened. 
Sometimes they condescend to dlwurra, or maize. Whenever 
possible they dip their bread in oil, and almost always moisten 
it with water. The dates are eaten under a variety of forms ; 
occasionally in tarts with a thin, tough underpaste ; but chiefly 
either mashed into a hard mass, with or without the stones, and 
frequently prepared with butter ; or dry, as they are exported 
to Europe. Rice is sometimes seen in a Bedawin tent ; but it 
requires too much cookery to be a staple article of food. If 
they have an opportunity, however, awful is the quantity they 
will demolish ! The same observation, indeed, will apply to 
any food they can get without trouble or expense. As to meat, 
which they rarely indulge in, they absolutely gorge like boa- 
constrictors when it does come within their reach. But their 
flocks and herds are too valuable to be slaughtered, except on 
especial occasions ; and, being an eminently pastoral people, 
they find little resource in the chase. At Mudar some boys 
brought quails, which they had snared, to our tent door for 
sale ; they will pounce upon a field-hen like a cat on a spar- 
row ; and they sometimes entrap gazelles. It is very rare, 
however, for them to use their guns ; powder is too precious an 
article. On one occasion I broke the wing of a great falcon ; 



CHARACTER OF THE BEDAWINS. 65: 

an old Bedawm begged him of me, cut his throat with the Mus- 
lim formalities, devoured him, and pronounced him excellent, 
I never heard of their taking the trouble to fish. 

The Bedawin is by no means an uninteresting study ; but 
I do not think he has ever been done complete justice to. 
Some writers have idealized him ; whilst the generality repre- 
sent him as constantly engaged in depredation, robbery, and 
murder. For my part, if I am ever invoked to "fly to the 
Desert," I shall disregard the voice of the charmer, but not 
precisely for fear of finding too " rude '^ a tent or of having 
my throat cut. Some of the finest minds of modern times, dis- 
satisfied with the results of our elaborate civilization, have 
yearned towards the life of glorious freedom which the pastoral 
nations are supposed to enjoy ; and their fascinating declama- 
tion has induced me more than once to cast a longing glance in 
the direction of the Desert, But it is a curious anomaly to 
find intellect passionately regretting a life in which all the con- 
ditions necessary for its development are wanting. The wild 
Arab may often be a man of great energy and keenness ; but 
a life of privation invariably narrows the mind. Follow him 
through the occupations of the day, and you will find him in- 
cessantly engaged in trifling and degrading duties. I hold it 
almost impossible for a man to be perpetually dodging at the 
flank of a camel, grunting, and whistling, and chanting, and 
giving vent to all sorts of guttural unmeaning sounds, without 
lowering himself towards the brute he tends. The horse is a 
noble animal ; it suggests ideas of beauty and may inspire at- 
tachment ; but to explain any afl^ection for a camel we must 
resort to the philosophy of the man who kissed his cow. I 
have accordingly seen no traces of the existence of such a 



66 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

feeling. On the contrary, I think the camel is just attended to 
sufficiently to supply its absolute wants, and no more. It is 
systematically starved, to accustom it to further starvation. It 
is often overloaded, and ill-treated by stripes and otherwise ; 
and during a halt is tied up with any thing but regard to its 
comfort. In fine, the intercourse between the Bedawin and his 
constant companion is by no means calculated to develope any 
kindly feelings. We hear talk of the resignation of the camel ; 
but no one can look on its features without thinking that, if it 
were not physically incapacitated for war, it would soon leave 
off bearing burdens. When not convulsed with rage, it almost 
always wears an expression of pain or anxiety. It is ex- 
tremely rare that one of these animals allows itself to be 
either loaded or unloaded without uttering cries of anger. 
They seem made for moving on perpetually in suffering and 
toil ; indispensable to man on account of their vast strength 
and powers of endurance ; and repelling sympathy by their 
hideous form. 

The Bedawin then finds no redeeming advantage for his 
mind in his communion with this unhappy creature. It is true 
that, when fairly mounted on his back in the midst of a broad 
plain, he goes on, on, as steadily as a ship with a fair wind — 
he may seem to have leisure for meditation ; but approach him, 
and you will find that he is humming, •' for want of thought," 
some unharmonious air, or watching the horizon, either in hope 
of discovering a landmark, or in fear of descrying a fellow- 
creature. 

This allusion to the distrust felt by the inhabitants of the 
Desert, one of another, reminds me to defend the Arab against 
the charge of living upon plunder so freely preferred against 



CHARACTER OF THE BEDAWINS. 67 

him. I wish his accusers would remember their political eco- 
nomy. They would soon be led to confess that, for a nation 
occupying a vast extent of unproductive country, robbery must 
be an abnormal condition. If they depend in the slightest de- 
gree upon the earth for suppoit, they must cling to it, watch it, 
study it, court its favor. A new pasturage or a new well- 
spring — not a new quarry to fly at — must be the object of their 
search. Herds and flocks, besides, are not convenient compan- 
ions on a predatory excursion ; and if left behind, would, in 
the state of society these writers suppose, be infallibly pounced 
upon. The fact is, that the Bedawins are divided into large 
tribes, which again are subdivided into small clans, if I may 
so call them. The latter vary in size with the copiousness of 
the wells they frequent, and are connected by ties of blood as 
well as the irrevocable bond of bread and salt. The former 
are almost equivalent to nations, as, for example, the Waled Ali 
and the Harabi. They are often at war, and of course look to 
booty as well as fighting : but if any outrage be committed by 
one member of a tribe upon another, or by one clan against 
another — as must sometimes be the case — it is looked upon as 
much in the light of a crime as a breach of the criminal laws 
of a civilized country. It may be that there is no means of 
redress but by force. If Abimelech's servants take away 
Abraham's well,* appeal must be made to the spear if remon- 
strance fail ; and then a feud ensues, which is naturally the 
source of m.uch disturbance, but which remains an exceptional 
case. 

*"I have digged this well" (Genesis xxi. 30), is the first recorded 
enunciation of the true theory of property. 



68 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

As to the state of alarm in which the Waled Ali were 
found by us, it arose not from the habitual disorganization of 
their own society, but from their being at that time subject to 
hostile inroads from a fiercer and more independent tribe on 
the west. Some Chedorlaomer was making his foray. The 
frequency of these national quarrels, and the knowledge also 
that want or caprice may drive any men who have arms in 
their hands to acts of violence, naturally create a little un- 
easiness if a large body appears in the distance ; but we al- 
most always found that our safety was not left to the accident 
of superior force, but that Nature, as was to be expected, had 
provided for the permanent existence of this pastoral people, by 
knitting them together, somewhat loosely it is true, in the bonds 
of fellowship. It will be understood, however, that any 
sympathy that may have been felt was excited by our guides. 
By the majority we Kafrs should have been looked upon as 
lawful prize. 

I have now only to allude to an idea that seems entertained 
by some that the fertile countries of the East are regularly made 
a spoil of by the children of tb.e Desert. They have some- 
times, it is true, ravaged districts of Egypt, for example. Most 
of the villages were formicrly roughly fortified, and even the 
inhabitants of the towns relied more on their walls and gates 
than on their numbers. To this day the Bedawins excite a 
traditional fear ; and it is believed that, whenever the country 
may happen to be politically unsettled, they will take advan- 
tage of the circumstance, and "come down like the wolf on the 
fold." But, in such an exceptional event, they would be only 
obeying the impulse deeply implanted in all barbarians, to take 
advantage of the dissensions of civilized nations, and exchange 



DRESS OF THE BEDAWINS. ' 69 

their life of misery and privation for one of pleasure and plenty. 
This is the way in which the affairs of the world have been 
from time immemorial managed : but that the conquerors or 
marauders who have at long intervals issued from the forest, 
the steppe, or the desert, to scourge or to renew the vitality of 
the world, were wont to gain any regular subsistence in that 
way, is an evident absurdity. 

It may be said that the Bedawlns rob the caravans ; but 
whoever knows the timidity of commerce will argue, from the 
fact of its being constantly carried on in the Desert, that 
it enjoys an average security. It is true, the merchants 
generally move in considerable numbers, and have often an 
escort ; but the largest caravan could be easily crushed if the 
Arabs were such keen freebooters as they are represented. In 
reality, travellers of every description, though not exempt from 
casualties, are in ordinary times tolerably safe in the Desert. 
They are naturally expected to put themselves under the pro- 
tection of the tribes through whose territory they pass, and to 
pay a small sum, which in effect is only equivalent to our 
transit-dues. Many of the quarrels that take place originate 
in some dishonest refusal on the part of a caravan to satisfy the 
demands made on them. 

One word on the appearance and character of the Bedawin. 
He wears generally a coarse shirt confined by a belt, with a 
pair of drawers underneath ; but his most important article of 
clothing is the huge blanket, either white or striped with brown 
and black, which he disposes in a variety of picturesque folds 
round his body ; sometimes allowing it to fall to his heels like 
a Roman toga, at others tucking it up above his knees ; some- 
times covering his head as with a hood, at others throwing it 



70 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESE£T. 

back. By night, when in repose, it serves for a bed and 
covering ; by day, for a tent. Sometimes, but chiefly in the 
West, the burnoose is worn in addition, or instead. I never 
saw a Bedawm with a regular turban ; but now and then he 
dons the variegated Hejazi shawl. More commonly they con- 
tent themselves with the tarboosh, and more commonly still 
with the white skull-cap. Nearly all of them wear, either 
attached to their head-dress or hanging round their necks, some 
kind of amulet sewed in a piece of leather. Of course who- 
ever can afford it carries a gun with a long barrel, now gener- 
ally of European manufacture, fastened to an Arab stock, often 
by means of complicated twists of wire. A fixed bayonet is 
not at all unusual ; whilst the spear appears to be nearly 
abandoned, at least in the Libyan Desert. Large ornamental 
pistols, of doubtful efficiency, with leathern pouches for shot 
and powder, and a murderous-looking dirk, give a finishing 
touch to the costume. 

The Bedawins with whom I have come in contact are not 
much of an equestrian people. They are too poor to keep 
many horses, which with them are mere luxuries, but seem 
very proud if they do possess any. Once or twice we met a 
couple pacing gravely over the Desert, evidently thinking a 
great deal of their own importance. Camels are a much more 
common mode of conveyance; but the established system is to 
walk. Riding at all is a mark of distinction. Yunus might 
often be seen sawing away at the top of the water-skins or the 
bean-bags; but Saleh was rarely allowed by his great cousin 
thus to play the aristocrat. 

The Arabs of the Desert are generally a well-made race, 
with complexions of various degrees of darkness. One tribe 



PHYSICAL ORGANIZATION OF THE BEDAWINS. 71 

on the Libyan coast are exceedingly fair, quite different from 
tlieir neighbors. I have been told that they attribute to them- 
selves a Teutonic origin, and once actually claimed Austrian 
protection on the ground of their being the descendants of the 
crew of a German vessel wrecked on the coast, in confirmation 
of which they produced a piece of an old manifest, carefully 
treasured up. In general the Bedawins have long faces, with 
rather prominent cheek-bones, small keen eyes, high nose, and 
pointed chins, with little beard. Their countenances are often 
expressive of good-humor, dashed with a clownish cunning. 
TJie elders and chiefs of the tribes affect a haughty bearing, 
liable to degenerate into arrogance ; and the whole race, more 
or less, is beset with the sin of pride, which seems the fast com- 
panion of indolent poverty : for the Bed a win, though certainly 
poor, and constrained to occupy himself, is not, properly speak= 
ing, industrious ; he avoids as much as possible to labor with 
his hands, especially in any menial capacity ; and our great 
Sheikh used absolutely sometimes to snort with indignation 
when any extra piece of work fell to his lot. This feeling is 
not usually accompanied with what we call independence, and 
often allies itself with meanness. Both Yunus and Saleh used 
to come creeping in the darkness of the night to pilfer any little 
things they wanted, not only from us, but from our poor donkey- 
boys. 

Before finishing this miscellaneous talk about the Bedawins 
I must mention the contrast that exists between their manner in 
the Desert and in great cities. When they enter Alexandria 
they are like Yorkshiremen in London, frightened and cowed; 
just like a dog, say the Iskenderanehs, who has got into a 
strange quarter among strange dogs. Every cock can crow on 



72 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

his own dunghill; and the timid Egyptian finds it is now his 
turn to bully. Our boys, who were in a state of tremor during 
the whole journey, no sooner got within the gates than they 
gratuitously insulted the first of the hated race they met. 

Two wags on opposite sides of a bazar will rub their palms 
together as if twining silk-yarn, crying out every now and then, 
^'Shid, shid !" (pull, pull). The Bedawin approaches with 
his gun on shoulder : all the people exclaim " Wati, wati !" 
(stoop, stoop) ; he does so, looking up for the imaginary thread, 
and creeping along ; '• Lower, lower !' — he almost crawls 
along the earth, until the laughter of the Alexandrian wits re- 
veals the truth, and, muttering "You are making sport of me, 
are you ?" he slinks away. When they venture into a shop 
they are always quizzed and imposed upon. 

Let us now say a few words about Mudar itself. Formerly 
it was a place of much greater importance than it now is. Up 
to 1819 it formed the head-quarters of the Waled Ali, whose 
chiefs were in that year compelled to remove to the Baharah, 
in order to be more within the reach of the authority of the Pa- 
sha. We saw about twelve tents and as many shadoofs, with 
some small houses of rough stones. In addition to the produc- 
tions I have alread)'- mentioned, dhourra is grown by the Muda- 
ris as well as barley. The chief riches of the inhabitants, 
however, consist in camels, asses, sheep, goats, and a few oxen. 
The importance of the place is in part derived from its being 
used as a resting-place for caravans on their way from Siwah. 
This was the paradise of old Saleh, who would willingly have 
terminated his journey here, and began again to croak fearfully, 
in which employment he was assisted by all the dismal spirits in 
Mudar — the great majority. According to them we were going 



COAST FROM ALEXANDRIA TO MUDAR. 73 

to enter on a desert infested with robbers, in which our throats 
were sure to be cut — a consummation which many, by their 
gibing looks, seemed to consider very desirable. Derwish and 
Saad were of a different opinion, and anxiously watched the ef- 
fect produced upon us by these terrific stories, seeming much 
surprised that we did not at once resolve to retrace our steps. 
As if further to increase their terror, our guides advised us to 
load our guns with ball that evening, even the encampment at 
Mudar itself having no good reputation. We performed the 
operation in public, though somewhat doubtful of its necessity. 
A brief review of the country we have hitherto traversed 
will not be here out of place. In the scanty accounts which 
have fallen under my notice it is briefly dismissed as a level 
plain ; writers generally seem to intimate that it is an expanse 
of sand ; and our enterprising countryman Browne, who in this 
case must have written from memory, says expressly that " the 
coast is plain," and that, except in the neighborhood of Alexan- 
dria, " the soil is generally smooth and sandy." What an er- 
roneous impression these words are calculated to produce may 
be learned from the foregoing pages. The truth is, nearly the 
whole country is covered with rocky hills, gradually increasing 
in elevation, until those we crossed before arriving at Mudar 
reached the height, I believe, of a thousand feet. Smooth plains 
do certainly intervene, and many flat valleys, but these are not 
by any means denuded of vegetation. They are sometimes 
stony, but are generally covered with a sandy soil, and there is 
no place destitute of some traces of verdure. { made no list of 
the vegetable productions of these regions, but know that the 
commonest species are salt-worts, samphires, etc. At some 
points the ice-plant is to be seen, and what appeared to me a 



74 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

kind of wormwood, with sea-lavender, and fifty other different 
plants of the same class. Here and there was a little brown 
grass, which after the winter rains, no doubt, becomes green 
and covers the ground. Between Abusir and the salt lakes we 
saw some Spanish broom, and in many places met with luxuri- 
ant thickets of lively green bushes. They have often good 
stout branches, sufficiently large to serve for the pegs with 
which the Bedawins fasten burdens on their camels ; they de- 
note a comparatively fertile soil, and appear to be cleared away 
sometimes to make room for a crop of barley. Thorns and 
prickly shrubs are plentiful at many points. Extensive patches 
of wild sage, about four or five times as large as that in our 
kitchen gardens, occur here and there. 

Perhaps the most remarkable feature on this coast is the 
line of low white hills that stretches along the whole distance, 
except where it is broken through by the spurs of the inland 
ridges that usually run parallel with it, forming a long narrow 
valley. In some places it is dotted with bushes, but at others 
is perfectly barren. At a distance the appearance is as of 
mere heaps of sand, but a closer inspection shows that this only 
covers the surface or fills the hollows of white rocks, in which 
almost all the wells we met with are cut — as at Abusir, Neffe, 
Munchurah, Shemaimeh, Shegick, Tanum, El-Emrum, Gemai- 
ma, El-Gerab and Grawi. In two cases the sand had blown 
in and choked the wells, whilst, with one exception, all the wa- 
tering-places we saw, either in going or returning, that were 
excavated in a different kind of rock, were properly cisterns, 
dry in summer, and filled only by the rains of winter. Of this 
character were Sheikh Mahmtid, El-Amin, and the ancient 
reservoirs near the ruined fortress of Gemaima, some miles 



WHITE ROCKY HILLS. 75 

south of the perennial spring ; and also by the accounts of our 
guides Bid Gurruj and Ejmina. The exception was the well 
of Ghukah, which is sunk very deep in the plain on the eastern 
side of the Catabathmus, about eight miles inland. Probably 
the white stone of which the coast barrier is composed is porous 
and allows the water of the sea to filter through, or rather 
sucks it up ; but it is a curious circumstance that even far in- 
land we found a piece of this same kind of rock accompanying 
the few wells we met with or passed near — Sheneneh, Selem, 
Haldeh. At Gemaima the well was in the midst of a patch of 
white sand, ribbed with rock, and occupying the centre of the 
valley ; and at Mudar, where were at least a dozen wells, one 
of which contained very sweet water, the shadoofs and the 
meadows and fields depending on them were all situated in a 
piece of sunken ground on the east side of a very large ex- 
tent of the same formation. 

We did not meet any encampment between Abusir and 
Mudar ; but I have no doubt that a few were concealed in the 
recesses of the hills : and at El-Emrum our people knew where 
to find the shepherd to whom we intrusted our beans. It is 
customary in barbarous countries to keep as much off* a high 
road as possible. Several kafilas passed us, both in coming 
and going, on their way to or from Alexandria ; and once or 
twice we had the company of a few travellers whose destina- 
tion we did not know. I have mentioned a small party that 
joined us with a camel the evening we left El-Emrum. We 
parted from them on the road ; but when we halted for the 
night, possibly not liking the neighborhood of the Mogrebbyns, 
or Western Arabs, who were encamped at Assambat, they 
came and requested permission to sleep near us. 



76 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT, 



I 



Not a single four-footed animal except a gazelle and a hare 
was seen by us, either in going or returning, unless we count 
one or two small rats, a tortoise, a chameleon, and legions of 
lizards. Birds were in plenty—crows, quails, red-legged par- 
tridges, field-hens, water-wagtails, hoopoes, larks, sparrows, 
and wrens, besides some of which we did not know the names. 
Numerous pigeons appeared among these varied feathered citi- 
zens of the air in the valley that stretches from the salt lakes 
to Abusir ; where they were chased by keen little hawks and 
great soaring falcons and kites. White gulls now and then 
scudded the surface of the waves ; and on our way back we 
saw numerous flocks of geese flying in their quaint array far * 
up in the air, and screaming at the approach of a shower, or 
settling on the plain, where sportsman's gun, I imagine, sel- 
dom disturbs them. A few brown butterflies, immense num- 
bers of gray lady-birds, some splendid death's-head moths, 
either attracted notice by their associations or their beauty ; 
whilst horse-flies, musquitoes, common flies, and — must I men- 
tion them ? — tykes, shaken off" by the camels, frequently tor- 
mented us. 

I now regret that circumstances did not permit me to trace 
this coast a little farther, and visit the ruins which occur at 
Kassaba, and at the place which geographers call Bareton, of 
which latter we heard nothing at Mudar. At Kassaba we were 
told there are ruins ; and I think there are two Kassabas, one 
near the sea and one inland ; for when at Selem, thirty miles 
on our way from the coast, on my mentioning the name, one 
of our guides pointed N. W., and asked if we wished to see 
the place, as if it was near at hand. 

Bareton is supposed to be identical in position with the 



ANCIENT PARjETONIUM. 77 

ancient ParEctonium, where Alexander, after his interview with 
the ambassadors from Cyrene, turned off in the direction of 
the oasis, leaving behind, I imagine, the three hundred splendid 
chariots he had received as presents. All ancient authors con- 
cur in representing him to have immediately entered on an 
expanse of moving sand, without hill, tree, or permanent tumu- 
lus as a road-mark. The character of our route was very 
different ; but when at the well of Selem, above mentioned, 
we did see in the distance to the west a vast plain, over which 
columns or perpendicular clouds of sand were moving, driven 
by the wind. It is possible, therefore, that at the outset Alex- 
ander's guides took him through a desert like thai described by 
ancient authors, and that they may have lost their direction, and 
when they reached the hilly country have entered the wrong 
pass, and wandered about in the extraordinary labyrinth that 
we found, until the providential interposition of two crows de- 
livered them from their disagreeable dilemma.* 

Parsetonium is famous on another account. When Antony, 
after the defeat of Actium, fled with Cleopatra to Libya, he 
landed at this port ; from whence he sent his " lass unpar 
alleled" to Egypt, whilst he retired to a melancholy desert 
with only two followers. 

* The critical Arrian weighs and rejects the testimony of Ptolemy, the 
son of Lagus, who attributes the salvation of Alexander to two " hissing 
serpents ;" and adheres to the more rational account of Aristobulus, who 
patronizes the two " black crows." 



78 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 



CHAPTER VI. 



We leave the Coast, and strike into the Heart of the Libyan Desert — Beda- 
win mode of saying Prayers on a Journey — Ascent of a tremendous Moun- 
tain at Night — Reach a lofty Table-land — Morning — Mirage Illusions 
— Troops of Gazelles — The ghttering Koora of Shenen^h — The Well 
of Seldm — Vast ancient Cistern — Visited by Bedawin Damsels — A 
tame Gazelle — Continue our Journey — Pursued by a Party of Robbers 
— Dangers of a hostile Collision — They are induced to abstain from an 
Attack, finding us prepared — They follow us — We march the greater 
part of the Night, and succeed in throwing them off our Track — Cross 
the Empty Valley and the Wady Ed-Delma — Reach the Well ot 
Haldeh — Discover the Ruins of a Fortress — The Sheikh of the Well — 
Reports of the Manser, or Band of Fifty mounted Robbers. 

We stayed about twenty-eight hours at Mudar, and, having- 
thus refreshed ourselves, started at five o'clock on the afternoon 
of the 25th of September ; and issuing from the narrow slip of 
plain land between the hills we had descended the day before and 
the beach, entered a broad valley, formed by a backward sweep 
of the high ground, which to the east and west advances far 
into the sea, forming two bluff promontories, and inclosing what 
I believe in the charts is called Port Mahada. The great patch 
of white sand, from which the water of the Mudar wells seems 
to distil, stretches a great deal to the west, occupying indeed 



BEDAWIN PRAYERS. 7& 

the whole bottom of the port or bay. The part of the range 
of hills which we were leaving behind us was far less steep 
than that to our left, and directly in front, which indeed ap- 
peared at a little distance to be perfectly unbroken and preci- 
pitous. The line of its summit was level like a wall ; and we 
began to puzzle ourselves with conjectures how we v/ere ever 
to get to the top. Our impatience was not soon gratified ; for we 
were compelled to zigzag slowly across the valley, which was 
cut up by a most extraordinary network of ravines and water- 
courses, now approaching the sea, now receding, then again 
facing towards it, then wheeling about, but preserving a gene- 
ral W. S. W. direction. 

All this time our Bedawins and the new guide — as entering 
on a journey of more than ordinary difficulty and danger — 
were occupied in saying their prayers piecemeal with unusual 
assiduity. There is something curious in the mode of praying 
adopted by these people whilst travelling in deserts where time 
is of consequence. Instead of stopping the kafila, and spread- 
ing the carpet, and sticking the spear in the sand, and fettering 
the camel — instead of forming a picture for Horace Vernet to 
paint — our uncouth- companions went about the affair in a much 
more business-like way. Walking a little forward, they knelt 
down and complied with the form of mock ablution with sand 
— laying their hands flat on the ground, passing them along 
their arms, over their face, round their necks in a fixed order, 
and then going through a few evolutions. By this time the 
camels were moving ahead, or were straying or loitering, and 
required direction or encouragement. So the conclusion of the 
ceremony was adjourned, and the necessary duties were at- 
tended to. Then the prostrations and kneelings were resumed 



80 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

at a more advanced spot; and so on, three or four times, until 
their consciences were satisfied and the sun went down. 

The interval was brief between the coming on of darkness 
and the rising of the moon, which had just passed her full, and, 
shining through a wonderfully clear atmosphere, enabled us to 
avoid, whilst she magnified to appearance, the dangers of our 
road. Two hours of toil brought us at length to the foot of the 
range of hills at a point at which they were to all appearance 
inaccessible. Flere we again turned towards the sea, and, 
having passed the mouth of a gloomy gorge, began to climb a 
rugged incline, covered at first with huge loose stones that gave 
way beneath our feet nearly at every step. As we proceeded 
the ascent became steeper and steeper, and our progress 
more and more sloWc Stoppages were frequent. The camels, 
heavily laden, seemed unwilling to move ; and paused every 
now and then to turn their long necks and look wistfully 
around, as if seeking a better path. But better path there was 
none. On either side, as now appeared, a deep and rugged 
ravine descended, sometimes in rapid slopes, sometimes in sheer 
precipices ; and it was up a kind of spur thrown out between 
these, that we were to escalade this frightful mountain. For 
some time our -progress, though slow, was sure. The camels, 
encouraged by the shouting, and coaxing, and whistling of old 
Saleh, gradually worked their way up until they came to a 
kind of slippery staircase of rock that led to the very brow of 
the range. Up this they at first refused to go, moaning and 
complaining at the hard task set them, and turning a deaf ear 
to entreaties and stubborn flanks to the stick. So, without any 
further experience, we had ample reason to deny that 



ASCENT OF A TREMENDOUS MOUNTAIN. 81 

" Mute 

The camel labors with the heaviest load." 

Meanwhile we sat down to rest from our wearisome walk, 
and to contemplate the dark valley beneath, surrounded by a 
semicircle of frowning hills and the opaque expanse of the sea. 
A few points only, touched by the moonlight, relieved the som- 
bre monotony of the scene. All around was dark, rugged, 
and inhospitable. No light or other sign of human habitations 
cheered us. The little settlement of Mudar, nestling in its 
own snug hollow, alone intervened between us and Abusir, 
whilst above our heads were the confines of a vast plain that 
stretched we knew not how far, for aught we knew a hundred 
and fifty miles without water or fixed inhabitants. Something 
we had heard, it is true, of a spring that had of late years 
bubbled up in the midst of the waste, and it was on this new- 
born well, that might have been stifled by the sands in its in- 
fancy, that we depended for crossing the Desert without suffer- 
ing the horrors of thirst. The supply we carried with us was 
scarcely sufficient for three days' economical consumption, and 
we had to look forward to five days' travel at least before 
reaching that little vanguard of the oasis called Garah. But 
this slight uncertainty, this dash of peril, rather heightened the 
pleasure with which we entered on the journey ; and, instead 
of wishing to linger in sight of the sea, we were anxious to 
leave it far behind, and be once for all in the midst of the Li- 
byan Desert. 

The physical obstacles, therefore, that we encountered at 
the outset were rather trying to our impatient tempers, and we 
gladly hailed the moment when we saw the tall ungainly form 
of the first camel, swinging its huge burden to and fro in its 



82 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 






exertions, begin the slippery ascent. One after another, the 
steady brutes, not however without complaint^ ventured on the 
dangerous ground, which had evidently been of late fatal to 
some of their predecessors, for several white skeletons gleanaed 
in the moonlight on either hand. Had the leader fallen, all 
would inevitably have been rolled down the side of the hill, to 
the imminent danger of our little band, some of whom the 
struggling creatures would most probably have overwhelmed. 
Fortunately, however, the ascent was accomplished without 
accident, and our little kafila, after winding along the edge of 
a steep precipice that descended into the ravine on our right, 
entered at length on a flat stony plain. The guide now turned 
our head, if I may so express myself, to the W. S. W., and, 
directing his course by the stars, began to steer across this 
trackless expanse for the promised well. On accordingly we 
went for several hours, stumbling and staggering, afraid to 
mount, lest our beasts should miss their footing and fall, and 
yet scarcely able to pick our way amidst the loose and pointed 
fragments of rock that encumbered the ground. Both shoes 
and feet suffered severely that night ; and though a clearer 
space occasionally intervened, we were glad to stop a little be- 
fore midnight and bivouac. A sound sleep, in spite of the 
cold and damp, prepared us for next morning's work, which 
we began surrounded by the illusions of mirage, that is to say, 
by imaginary lakes and islands breaking the otherwise level 
horizon, which only by degrees revealed itself in all its naked 
monotony as the sun rose higher in the heavens. 

I had often heard and read descriptions of the Desert as a 
" sea of sand," but we now found ourselves in what might 
almost be called a " sea of stones," with, it is true, here and 



KOOM OF SHENENEH. 83 

there at wide intervals a patch of bushes, and the contorted form 
of the ligneous plant called shia dotting the ground. This plant 
exhales a strong odor something resembling rue, and is culti- 
vated in pots at Alexandria on that account. In the Desert its 
more tender extremities serve as food for the gazelles, small 
troops of which were now and then seen browsing out of gun- 
shot. As we approached, they raised their heads and appeared 
to listen and watch, but the result of their examination was 
never, it seemed, encouraging, for off they invariably went, 
cocking up their tails, at first gently trotting, but by degrees 
lengthening their steps, then bounding, scudding, flashing along, 
as it were, over the vast level, now huddling together, now 
spreading into a long irregular line, seeming at times to out- 
strip the sight, but coming again into view, flitting away 
swiftly like uncertain shadows, until at length they faded into 
nothing ; as a prolonged echo, after quivering through the air, 
subsides into a faint murmur, and dies away in the distance. 
On one occasion a mother and its fawn lingered to nibble a 
green shrub, and our Bedawins began to manoeuvre to get a 
supply of fresh meat, one crouching down, and another advan- 
cing obliquely ; but the cautious creature took the alarm and 
made away with her young charge in double-quick time. I 
may here remark that the agreeable musk-like smell of the 
excrements of these animals is doubtless derived from the aro- 
matic plants on which they feed. 

As day advanced our attention was attracted to a brilliant 
speck on the horizon, glittering like the summit of a snow-clad 
mountain, or a peak of silver. It turned out to be a koom, or 
hillock of white sand, with a well in the neighborhood, called 
Sheneneh. We left it some distance to our right, and made 



84 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

direct for another white spot said to mark another well, and 
visible at a distance of two hours, half way up a well-defined 
slope in the Desert immediately ahead. This was the first 
variation in level that had occurred since we ascended the 
table-land, and was therefore gladly hailed as promising a 
somewhat less monotonous road. 

It was near mid-day before we reached what had appeared 
a mere milky spot, which turned out to be a cluster of mounds 
of white stone and sand. We saw a human form from a dis- 
tance on the top of one of these, but when we approached it 
had disappeared, and no trace of it or the well at first presented 
themselves. A sound from beneath the earth, however, di- 
recting us, we discovered a little channel cut in the flat sur- 
face of the rock, and at the bottom a hole large enough to 
allow passage for a man of ordinary size. It was evidently 
made for the use of the inhabitants of the Desert, and not 
destined to admit the respectable rotundity of civilization. 
Some of our party, therefore, declined to explore, and trusted 
to the report of the more active. 

We descended, guided by the voices below, into a dark 
passage which led to a spacious subterranean chamber cut out 
of the solid rock, and about thirty yards square. The roof 
was pretty even, and the walls were perfectly smooth, and 
covered with those rough marks and figures which, when first 
noticed by travellers on all the rocks and monuments of this 
pan of the world, were thought to be the alphabet of an un- 
known language. They are now, I am told, known to be the 
distinctive marks of the various tribes of Arabs who may have 
sojourned a while in these regions. The floor of this chamber 
was covered with mounds of clayey soil, evidently allowed to 



VISITED BY BEDAWIN DAMSELS. 85 

gather by neglect, so as nearly to choke up the springs. Of 
these there are two, at the bottom of deep holes : one in a dark 
corner, the other in the centre, exactly underneath a square 
aperture in the rock made for the double purpose of admitting 
light, and of letting down buckets when the rains of winter have 
filled the whole cistern. Two boys, who seemed to be there 
watching for the water as it oozed up, gave us to drink from 
their skin bucket. The taste was muddy, but it was cool as if 
it had been iced. The cave itself, though at first agreeable after 
the burning atmosphere above, we soon found to be too chilly 
to stay in. It is almost unnecessary to add that this place must 
date at least as far back as the time of the Romans, and was 
probably one of the stations as now on the caravan-road to the 
oasis. If properly cleared out it might yield a large supply 
of good water, whereas when wc passed there was barely 
sufficient for our donkeys. The others made a hole in what 
we had brought from Mudar, whilst the camels, of course, ab- 
stained. 

On ascending from this cave we found that the party had 
been joined by a number of Bedawin women and children, 
from a neighboring encampment. No men, however, made 
their appearance, which fact afterwards received a probable 
explanation. One damsel was rather pretty, and very obliging. 
Seeing that there was some difficulty in setting up our tent in 
the hard ground, which seemed an agglomeration of particles 
of stone, she seized the mallet, and, with great dexterity, soon 
got through the work, and drove the pegs at which our two 
Arabs had boggled, and then went her way without waiting 
for hacksJieesh. The act was one of simple kindness, sans 
arriere pensee, unless we choose to suppose that the wench 



86 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

took a pride in showing her superiority in the arts of desert 
life. It appeared that this party had come for the purpose of 
assuaging their thirst, but, above all, of enjoying the coolness 
of the cave or cistern ; for they all descended amidst great 
shouting and laughter, and stayed some time below. When 
they came up, we were making our meal ; and, whilst looking 
with contempt on most of our good things, they cast covetous 
eyes on the precious biscuit, fragments of which that fell to 
the ground were snatched up and eagerly devoured. Our 
gallantry might have induced us to make them a present of 
some, but stern reason forbade. 

The Arethusa of the well of Selem — she, namely, that 
drove the pegs — had a tame gazelle, which, though professing 
to be very tbnd of, she asked us to buy. We declined doing 
so, alleging our inability to carry it ; but she said it would fbl. 
low us like a dog, and be not so easily tired. Probably she 
expected it would soon return to her side. At a subsequent 
period we met the same gazelle and its owner in another part 
of the Desert, near the sea, and inquired its price. We were 
told ninety piasters, nearly a pound sterling, These animals, 
indeed, are difficult to be procured, and sell for a large sum in 
Alexandria, whither this one was bound. I noticed that its 
mistress, when tired, mounted a camel, and carried it in her 
lap. Perhaps it will not be out of place here to mention that 
a very young gazelle, that unfortunately had its leg broken, 
was once given to me by Lamport, and that I have succeeded 
in rearing it in my courtyard in Alexandria, The Bedawins 
who took it bandaged the injured limb so well that, though for 
a long time lamed, it scarcely now retains even a mark to re- 
veal the accident it encountered. 



\ 



AN ADVENTURE. g7 

The well of Selem, which supplies water to a tribe of 
seventeen guns, is distant twelve hours' journey, or about thirty- 
miles, from Mudar, as nearly as we could make out, in a W. 
S. W. direction by compass. There is at first neither track 
nor bold landmark on this vast expanse ; but by night our guide 
shaped his course by the stars, whilst in the morning he had 
the assistance of the glittering Koom of Sheneneh. The 
country, when once we reached the table-land, had no remark- 
able feature, except its extreme flatness, and the circumstance 
that it is strewn over, and in many places encumbered, with 
loose pieces of sandstone resting on a clayey soil mixed with 
sand. The vegetation is similar in character to that on the 
coast, except that it is more scanty and stunted, and that the 
sMa is in greater abundance. 

We were in the saddle again at half-past three ; and, rising 
over the ridge, got into a country covered with low hills. 
Whilst quietly jogging along over them, we suddenly became 
aware that something out of the way was the matter by the 
shouts and gestures of our Bedawins. Looking in the direc- 
tion they indicated, we saw a party of eight men, seven of 
whom were armed with guns, advancing at a short run over 
the hills to our left, and a little in our rear, from the direction, 
in fact, of the encampment to which the women and children 
I have mentioned belonged. They were instantly pronounced 
to be robbers ; and their mode of approach was certainly most 
suspicious. The very fact of their lying close whilst we were 
so many hours in their neighborhood without paying a visit, 
and then suddenly showing themselves in this manner, was 
judged, apparently with reason, to be a sufficient proof of their 
evil intentions. At any rate, especially when we saw them 



88 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

getting their weapons ready, there was ample justification for 
the word which immediately passed round to load with ball ; 
after which the camels, which had been slightly scattered at 
the first alarm, were again collected and put in motion, whilst 
we followed, prepared to face about before the pursuers over- 
took us, and summon them to halt and reveal their intentions. 
These preparations did not escape their notice, and they visibly 
slackened their pace, so that it was some time before they came 
sufficiently near to answer the hail of old Yunus, who had 
been meanwhile making great show of his weapons, fresh 
priming and examining the lock of his gun, and seeing that his 
pistols were in fighting order. Saleh also pulled his meagre 
beard with considerable energy, begged a pinch of Frank 
powder for his single but large pistol, and loosened his poniard 
in its sheath. As for Wahsa, our new guide, who had a camel 
at stake, he also made warlike demonstrations ; whilst our poor 
Arabs looked very peaceable and woful. They evidently ex- 
pected to have their throats cut in a few minutes, and wore 
visages corresponding. 

Matters, however, were not quite so bad as all that. Whe- 
ther we showed too good a countenance, or whether our Beda- 
wins had libelled those " who drank at the well of Selem," I 
cannot determine. Certain it is that the so-called hostile 
party halted at speaking distance ; a parley ensued, and, after 
some time, we were favored with the information that this 
armed detachment had come out to oflier for sale a single ihram 
or blanket, price seventeen piasters. We were glad to accept 
this pacific interpretation of their movements, and Yunus made 
the purchase. A capital bargain it was, too. The piece had 
evidently been woven in the tents, of Desert wool, and was 



THE EMPTY VALLEY. 89 

Striped tastefully with black. We should have been very glad 
to procure a similar one all round to protect us against the 
cold of the night. 

This little adventure being over, we pursued our journey, 
not however without many broad hints of approaching assassi- 
nation from our still frightened Arab lads, who inferred, from 
the ambiguous direction taken by Ihe Selemites at parting, 
that, finding us at present well prepared, it was their intention 
to fall upon us at night. Their idea under the circumstances 
did not appear unreasonable, as we saw these doubtful charac- 
ters at intervals until nightfall keeping nearly in a line with 
us, though at a gradually increasing distance. 

At a quarter past four we descended from the ridge of hills 
we had been crossing in a S. W. direction from Selem, into a 
remarkably flat valley that lay athwart our road, forming a 
trench, as it were, called Wady Faragh, or the Empty Valley. 
Its sides resemble the steep banks of a river, with a level line 
of summit, and here and there in its centre rise hills with pre- 
cipitous sides, exactly the same height as the surrounding land, 
and looking like islands left dry by the receding waters. This 
valley evidently extends a great distance S. E. and N. W. We 
crossed it again on our return more to the east ; and on neither 
occasion could we detect any change in its character. 

We had now entered upon a tract of country somewhat dif- 
ferent from that which we had hitherto traversed — a series 
namely, of small, level, stony plains, ending, as in the Wady 
Faragh, in steep descents, and divided by smooth valleys inter- 
spersed with isolated hills or islands as I have called them. By 
moonlight especially, these hills, with their scarped sides and 
regular forms, reminded one strongly of a vast system of forti- 



90 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

fications, like those of A^lexandria; and even by day there 
seemed no comparison so apt for many of the crumbling emi- 
nences amidst which we passed as bastions and earthworks. 
Some of the sharpness of their forms, however, was taken off 
by the detritus accumulated at their base, which suggested the 
idea that the soil of the valley was entirely formed of contri- 
butions washed down by the rains. Much of the substance of 
the hills seemed to consist of hardened mud, and it is to be 
supposed that large masses of this have yielded to the influence 
of time, and been gradually spread over the valleys, raising 
their level and leaving the more solid sandstone in its present 
extraordinarily denuded state. The soil thus formed has, in 
many instances, been turned to account by the Bedawins. 
Some time after sunset we halted to wait for the moon in a val- 
ley called Wady Ed-Delma, amidst the stubble of a field that 
had been sown with barley the previous winter ; and both cam- 
els and donkeys found some occupation for their teeth. 

It will be difficult to convey an idea of the pleasure with 
which I look back to these little halts, affording as they did a 
most welcome interruption to the monotony of a ride of several 
hours at kafila pace. On this occasion we found ourselves, 
though beneath a brilliant canopy of stars, in almost total dark- 
ness, at the bottom of a shallow basin, of which we could 
scarcely distinguish the dim outline ; and, sitting down here 
and there upon the ground, proceeded to enjoy the luxury of a 
pipe, whilst anxiously watching the eastern quarter of the hea- 
vens for the coming luminary that was to light our path through 
the labyrinth of hills and passes in which we were engaged. 
Perhaps the slight sentiment of the probable neighborhood of 
danger, in the shape of prowling Bedawins, contributed to 



RUINS OF A FORTRESS. 91 

heighten the enjoyment of our halt, which was not, however, 
of long duration, for, soon after the moon had risen, and enabled 
us dimly to distinguish objects near at hand, we were again in 
motion, journeying nearly in a south direction up a valley 
flanked as usual by apparent fortifications, which led to another 
stony table-land. We were now near the proposed place of 
stoppage, and, having made a sharp descent, came upon a 
flock of sheep and goats. After a few words with the shep- 
herds, we proceeded about a quarter of a mile in search of the 
well of Haldeh. We only found, however, the traps of some 
Bedawins covered with a blanket, and abandoned to the honesty 
of passers-by. Here we spread our mat, and lay down to 
sleep, with our firearms^ as in duty bound, within reach in 
case of a surprise. 

Early dawn found us in a broad shallow valley, with open- 
ings on several sides. A few tents appeared to our right, and 
directly in front the customary white patch that announced the 
presence of a well. On reaching this we were surprised to find 
the place strewed with ruins, evidently belonging to some 
structure, once of importance. The only European traveller 
who had preceded us on this road, our countryman Browne, says 
nothing about them, and must have passed them at night. In 
his time, probably, the spring that now bubbles up and supplies 
the great cistern did not exist. Indeed we learned from the 
Bedawins that Haldeh had only recently become a fixed sta- 
tion, as formerly it depended on the rains of winter ; whereas 
now one of the thin veins of water that trickle beneath the sur- 
face even of the Desert had broken into it. Very likely the 
feeble current had only been checked for a time by an over- 
whelming weight of sand, and, accidentally bursting forth, had 



92 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

been assisted by the removal of the obstruction, and coaxed 
into regularly supplying a few dozen kurhehs a day even in 
summer. Three hundred people, with their flocks, are said 
regularly to drink from this well, not to speak of the kafilas 
that may resort thither on their way to or from the coast. 

The ruins were manifestly those of a fort built in ancient 
times to protect the waters, and to a certain extent command 
the return to the oasis. I did not examine the cistern, as there 
is no regular descent, as at Selem ; but it is evidently very 
spacious. Over the mouth, which is cut in the rock, there was 
formerly a great round tower, built of massive stones, and 
standing at the northwest angle of a considerable solidly con- 
structed square building, from the corners and sides of which 
there radiated to some distance irregular walls, thrown out evi- 
dently for the purpose of preventing an enemy from bringing 
too great a front to bear upon the garrison. There were no 
traces of a moat : the precautions taken being sufficient against 
the Desert tribes, to overawe whom the fortress was intended. 
The whole structure is overthrown almost to the ground ; many 
of the fine large squared stones are honeycombed by the atmo- 
sphere, and others have been used to form the Bedawin tombs 
which crown one of the two white mounds that rise near the 
well. 

I believe that there existed in ancient times, both Greek 
and Roman, a regular series of strong places, extending from 
the confines of Egypt to the oasis, and possibly beyond, wher- 
ever water could be procured, in order to protect and assist the 
caravans. At what period they were erected I know not. 
Those along the coast may seem to have been superfluous 
whilst the country was an inhabited province filled with towns; 



THE MANSER. 9B 

but it was probable that there was always some danger from 
the wandering tribes that hung upon the flanks of the narrow 
strip of cultivated land : at any rate, that there was a line 
of wells protected by forts appears indubitable. Our guides 
had a sort of theory that every permanent station on the 
coast had a corresponding castle with a cistern some miles 
inland, as Munchurah, Kasr el-Amaid, Shemaineh, Gobisa, 
and Gemaima. Kassaba is a common name to give to the 
ruins at such places, because they generally consist of four 
bare walls. 

The water in the well of Haldeh has a cold stony taste and 
a milky look. It does not rise immediately under the mouth 
of the cistern, so that it is necessary for one man to scramble 
down in order to fill the bucket, which another hauls up. This 
bucket was simply a piece of sheepskin, with the edges roughly 
sewed to a kind of hoop. It belonged to a sheikh, who has the 
superintendence of the well, and whose person and flocks are 
protected by the sanctity of his character. He was a stout, 
well-made, dark-skinned fellow, with a simple, good-humored 
expression of countenance, and worked cheerfully to water our 
camels and donkeys. He entertained us, as did every one we 
met in this road, with the exploits of the Manser, which means 
a band of sand-troopers, if I may use the expression, engaged 
in a foray. A party of fifty horsemen from the West were, 
he told us, to be met with on our road, and would most pro- 
bably relieve us of some portion at least of our luggage. 
They had been last heard of in the neighborhood of Garah, 
and were said to have been guilty of considerable familiarity 
with the flocks and herds of the Waled Ali. He admitted, 
however, that the country was up in arms against them, and 



94 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

that by this time they might have beaten a retreat. For 
himself he felt no fear, belonging as he did to the class of 
MarabutSj and being venerated by both sides. How often 
do civilized invaders respect the temples and altars of their 
foes? 



UNWATERED WILDERNESS. &5 



CHAPTER yil. 

March through an unwatered Wilderness in the track of Alexander the 
Great — The Devil's Water — Travelling by the Light of a Lantern — Lose 
our Way — Dangerous Predicament — Halt without Finding the Path- 
Search for it in the Morning — " The two Crows" — At length succeed in 
gaining the Track — Wayside Pillars — " The Camel's Mouth — Snakes — 
Gray Lady-Birds — Butterflies — Highest Point of the Range of Hills — 
The Valley of Diamonds — Talc — Vast Beds of Oyster Shells — Illustra- 
tions of Strabo — The " Pass of the Crow" — Names of Places in the De- 
sert — Brilliancy of the Stars — Magnificent Moonlight Scene — Romantic 
Gorge — Descent to the Plain. 

We had now before us, we were told, a very arduous march of 
several days, during which we should meet neither well nor 
encampment, and be entirely dependent for subsistence on the 
water we carried in our kurbehs. It was necessary, therefore, 
to take a good supply ; to be very economical ; and to push on 
with increased energy. The slightest delay might be produc- 
tive of suffering ; whilst any considerable impediment thrown 
in the way of our uninterrupted progress would certainly lead 
to very disastrous consequences. It was to insure the kafila 
against accidents of this sort that the new guide had been pro- 
cured at Mudar : for were we once to deviate from the road, we 
might wander about in search of it until our water and provi- 



96 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

sions were exhausted. Wahsa had been, according to his own 
account, twenty — that is to say, a great nnany times — to Siwah; 
and we committed ourselves unhesitatingly to his guidance. 

Havino; well filled the skins with the cold white water — 
that looked as if mixed with lime — we left Haldeh and its ruins 
after an hour's halt. The Europeans of the party, buoyed up 
by their excitement, were high in spirits and pressed cheerfully 
on ; but Derweesh and Saad followed with hanging heads, and 
gloomy, dissatisfied countenances, looking like sheep going to 
the slaughter, whilst even the Bedawins seemed not at all con- 
fident of their safety. The alarm of robbers, which had been 
raised the evening before — the unsatisfactory accounts of 
the Sheikh of the Well — the difficulties and dangers of the 
road itself — combined to fill them with anxiety. However, on 
we went at a rapid pace, nearly southward, up a long valley, 
or furrow, in the Desert, with many openings to the left filled 
with Moyet-Eblis, or the Devil's Water, which is the name 
given by the Arabs to mirage illusions. Heaps of stones at 
very short intervals marked the road, which it would otherwise 
have been impossible to keep, so utterly devoid of character 
were the low hills, or rather undulations, among which we soon 
found ourselves. Having continued ascending and descending 
until near noon, we were right glad to encamp in a little copse 
an^^ seek the shelter of our little tent, where the thermometer 
stood at 96°. 

It is difficult to convey an idea of the pleasure which these 
mid-day halts afforded us, especially in a tract of country con- 
sisting of a monotonous expanse without the grandeur of a level 
plain — exhibiting always a limited, undefined horizon — and 
covered for the most part with loose stones. Here and there a 



ENCAMPMENT. 97 

small patch of stunted shrubs springs up from a spot to which 
the winter rains have washed down a little soil ; but although 
the camels browsed willingly on the tender green extremities, 
our donkeys went snuffing about in vain for something to suit 
their palates. On the coast, they greedily devoured the gray 
lichens, I remember, that covered the ground at some places ; 
but here this resource failed them : and, as not a single blade 
of grass ever showed itself, they were always obliged to wait 
for their periodical supply of beans and chopped straw. This 
was given them by the boys in nosebags immediately on our 
arrival at a camping ground ; whilst we four set to work mer- 
rily to put up the tent. No true traveller expects to have all 
this done for him. Half the enjoyment would have been de- 
stroyed if other hands had labored whilst we sat lazily by. 
When the tent was up with the door to the north, each procured 
his carpet-bag and his cloak to form a temporary divan — a tin 
of preserved meat was opened — the biscuit-bag was visited — a 
few raw onions, bought at Mudar, were added as a relish — a 
single bottle of porter, to be diluted with water into four good 
tumblers, was got ready — the tin-plates were cleaned ; and the 
frugal meal commenced. Lucullus never relished his innu- 
merable dishes as we did this humble fare. Though we had 
no picturesque prospect before us, every accessory of the scene 
was romantic. The very fact of our having created for our- 
selves, for a moment, a home in the midst of the Desert, gave 
a zest to all our comforts. No living creature was near that 
did not belong to us. Our beasts of burden were dispersed 
here and there. The Bedawms sat in a group apart ; our don- 
key boys enjoyed the shade of the tent on the outside. It was 

as if we had landed on a little uninhabited island in the midst 

5 



98 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

of the ocean, and had covered it for the first time with life. 
But the signal for deparlure is given. The hours have flown 
rapidly by. Down with the tent — out again into the blazing 
sun — gather the camels — pile up their burdens — and away ! 

We again started, this time late in the afternoon, and having 
rounded a hill on the left and crossed the bed of a winter's lake 
— a broad level expanse of hard-baked white mud — proceeded I 
in a general southerly direction until dark. The road is here ' 
marked by little heaps of stones placed at tolerably regular 
distances ; so that Wahsa thought he could advance without ] 
danger by the help of a lantern. He might as well have at- 
tempted to steer across the Atlantic with the same assistance. 
Presently there was an uncertainty in our movements : some- 
times we went to the right, sometimes to the left ; then came a 
pause ;^ and another hurried move ; a halt ; and then a confes- 
sion that we had lost the track, and had, perhaps, entered the 
wrong valley. This was not at all a pleasant announcement. 
True we could not be very distant from the right path ; but 
each step might take us farther away, and every hour lost now, 
promised an hour of privation to come. We sat down accord- 
ingly ; and watched with some anxiety the motions of the lan- 
tern as it flitted here and there over the country. At length the 
Bedawins returned, and, without saying a word, collected the 
camels and began driving them on in a westerly direction. 
We were soon climbing a steep declivity, at the top of which 
we once more came to a stand-still, and found that the proper 
course had at length been determined on, namely, to wait for 
the rising of the moon. Our reflections during this halt could 
not be very satisfactory. There we were crowded together on 
a little, barren, waterless spot, in the midst of darkness, with 



I 



TRAVELLING BY LIGHT OF A LANTERN. 99 

nothing but silent hills repeating one another in an endless suc- 
cession of resemblances around, ignorant in what direction to 
move, with every chance of choosing the wrong one, far re- 
moved both from the coast, and from the little speck of verdure 
towards which we were steering. What if we could not re- 
gain the road ; and, attempting still to proceed, were to get en- 
tangled in an inextricable labyrinth ? Alexander the Great, 
it is true, when he lost his way in the sam.e region, was rescued 
by miraculous interposition. Was there any likelihood that 
we should be equally favored ? As to making a disgraceful 
retreat, guided by the compass toward the sea, it was abhor- 
rent to our thoughts, involving as it would have done the total 
failure of the expedition. So we sat silently down, and ma- 
naging, under cover of our cloaks, to light pipes or cigars in 
spite of the strong northeast wind that went roaring by over 
hill and dale, waited with patience for the result. 

At length the moon rose above the black, undulating hori- 
zon, and cast its pale deceitful light upon us. The word 
was now given to drive on the camels ; but it was evident no 
new discovery had been made. The Bedawins spread them- 
selves on either side hailing each other, or rather barking now 
and then in imitation of the jackal to communicate their where- 
abouts. It was difficult to prevent a feeling of awe from steal- 
ing into the mind. These strange sounds struggling with the 
furious blast — dim forms flitting here and there — the solemn mo- 
tions of the groups of camels — the beams of the moon revealing 
no distant object — a world of unsubstantial shadows — the known 
and possible danger — all united to act powerfully on the ima- 
gination. The conduct of the Bedawins was by no means re- 
assuring. Our inquiries as to the result of their endeavors 



100 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

were met by brief, evasive answers, or sulky silence. They 
evidently attached more importance to the accident that had 
happened than we at first did, probably from having some tra- 
ditions in their minds, more fresh and palpable than our classi- 
cal ones, of — how kafilas that have strayed as we had done, 
have perished of starvation in the howling wilderness. After 
wandering about for some time, we were once again compelled 
to give up the search and halt on a bleak stony ridge for the 
night. Here we huddled together on our mats, endeavoring to 
keep off the cutting wind hy a line of zembils and carpet-bags; 
and suffering intensely from the cold. Fatigue, however, 
caused us to sleep, and we woke in the morning drenched by 
a heavy fall of dew, and shivering like aspen leaves. 

Wahsa now went back in search of the road, whilst Saleh 
and Yunus after leading us some distance ahead, each took a 
separate direction. We remained on a slope, at the foot of 
which the skeletons of several camels told that the place had 
been a disastrous one to former travellers. I noticed here the 
excessive clearness of the atmosphere, showing the forms of 
our Bedawins as they gained the summits of distant hills, and 
making them appear almost close at hand. The sound of their 
footsteps too, as they came running back to announce the fruit- 
lessness of their search, and compare notes, resounded afar 
over the Desert. 

Whilst in this state of suspense we saw two crows wheel- 
ing in the air for some time, and then taking a southwest direc- 
tion. Had we been in an age of superstition, we should have 
considered this a sufficent indication, and have followed these 
kind guides, the descendants possibly of the birds which, on a 
similar occasion, and very near, says tradition, the point at 



THE TWO CROWS. 101 

which we had arrived, extricated Alexander the Great from 
the horrors of the pathless wilderness. Had we obeyed the 
augury we should not have gone wrong ; but we did not yield 
to the suggestions of our imaginations, and waited for the 
return of Wahsa, who had certainly taken the best method of 
repairing his mistake. The stupid obstinacy of our Bedawins, 
however, had nearly made matters worse. Instead of remain- 
ing where they were, or choosing some conspicuous spot for a 
halt, they drove their camels down into a little patch of vege- 
tation to browse, and, as I have said, each went his way, 
giving us full leisure to reflect on the utter sterility of 
this country, in which neither tent nor well is to be found, 
and which is probably never trodden by the foot of man, ex- 
cept on the line marked out for the caravans, in the course of 
ages. 

At our suggestion a gun was at length fired for Wahsa's in- 
formation, but the sound did not reach him. As time wore on, 
I became impatient, not to say uneasy, and ascending an emi- 
nence, at length discovered a human form moving rapidly to 
and fro at an immense distance ; so I constituted myself into 
a landmark, and soon had the satisfaction of seeing the guide 
make straight in my direction. On arriving, he seemed ex- 
hausted with fatigue, blessed my eyes (" Salam ala eynak !"), 
and abused old Saleh, who he said ought to have guessed that, 
unless some one of the party showed himself, he should never 
have been able to rejoin us. 

He now took us in the direction the crows had indicated, 
and it was not long before we fell into a well-defined track 
along a broad shallow valley. From this point onwards we 
were rarely out of sight of a double row of piles of stones, 



102 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

raised by the industry of successive caravans. Without their 
assistance indeed it would be impossible to keep the road, amidst 
the labyrinth of hills through or rather over which it passes, 
making no account scarcely of natural difficulties, up and down 
the steepest slopes in a direct line as nearly as possible as the 
bird flies. Some of these marks consist of five or six large flat 
stones, placed on one another so as to form a rickety column ; 
others are great heaps, in some instances six or seven feet high. 
I believe that in most of the deserts which are traversed by 
caravans, and where materials are to be found, this benevolent 
practice of marking the road for future travellers exists. It 
is a tradition, however, mentioned in the Kitab el Geman 
of Shehab-ed-din, that the Berber race were always unwil- 
ling to adopt it ; and I believe that the people of Siwah — 
an offshoot from this stock — have never contributed to render 
the road to their oasis obvious and easy. The Arabs, on 
the contrary, are very particular in performing this sacred 
duty. 

All this region is covered with low flat hills, rising like 
islands out of a level plain, and scattered in front of long 
ranges, with occasional breaks, allowing one to see on either 
hand other expanses of country, with isolated hills of the same 
monotonous character, rarely differing in height, and, like those 
between Sel6m and Haldeh, bearing a great resemblance to 
fortifications. At about half-past ten we issued into a plain, at 
the entrance of which the termination of the right-hand range, 
although not remarkable in appearance, bears the name of 
Husham el Gaoud, or " The Camel's Mouth." Beyond this we 
halted, among some of the stunted shrubs, that afforded a wel- 
come opportunity for our camels to browse, and the existence or 



WHITE SNAILS. 103 

absence of which in this generally barren wilderness often de- 
termined us to abridge or prolong our morning's ride. During 
the halt we were reminded that our course lay now southward, 
for the thermometer rose to 100° in the tent. The air, how- 
ever, was occasionally stirred by cool puffs of wind that 
lasted about five minutes, and somewhat revived us. Our 
poor donkeys were the worst off, and came hobbling, in spite 
of their fettered legs, to get under the scanty shade of our 
tent, in the cords of which they perpetually entangled them- 
selves, to the great peril of its stability. They were now 
necessarily on short allowance of bad water, and were visibly 
knocking up. 

All the bushes in this part of the Desert were covered with 
a white snail. I noticed several dozens on a plant not more 
than a foot high. The earth is thickly strewed with their 
shells, which have the peculiarity of a peak over the opening, 
divided from the rest of the shell by a ridge raised about the 
eighth of an inch. It is said that some of the inferior Bedawins, 
who are generally unburdened with the scruples of the civilized 
Muslim, eat these snails. The Egyptians make fun of them 
on this account, and quote similar facts to prove that they are 
an accursed race. They tell a story to the effect that two 
hungry Bedawins once found a cow that had died of disease, 
and, having been long without tasting flesh, made a hearty 
meal on the best parts. The period of digestion became the 
period of doubt and repentance, and, going to a holy Marabut, 
they laid the case before him, expepting to get their consciences 
eased. " My sons," said the saint, " you have committed a 

great sin " They would not allow him to proceed further, 

but exclaimed, " If it be a sin, we have eaten ; and if it be not 



104 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

a sin, we have eaten. Buffer fee eynak ! (An ass's hoof in 
your eye !)" and went their way in high dudgeon. 

At this encampment we were covered with an immense 
number of gray lady-birds ; and on the way from Haldeh, a 
few brown butterflies had fluttered across our path. A gray 
snake also, of the species common at Garah and Siwah, and 
reported to be extremely venomous, wriggled along the sand 
in the neighborhood of a little extempore tent, which the Beda- 
wins had rigged, with their guns for poles, their blankets for 
coverings, and our bags of beans and other traps to keep down 
the corners. This reptile I believe emerged from our provision 
basket, into which I was about to put my hand. 

In the afternoon of this day I believe we reached the highest 
point of the great range of hills and series of table-lands along 
which we had been travelling from Mudar. For a time we 
could catch a wider glimpse than before of the surrounding 
country ; but the line of stone-heaps we had hitherto faithfully 
followed soon led us into a valley sourrounded with precipices 
of calcareous formation. The sides generally descended sheer 
down, and along the base were scattered fragments that had 
gradually given way from above. On either side opened glens 
and passes, obstructed by mounds and hills, which sometimes 
wore the appearance of tents, at others of houses, at others 
of ruined forts. The cliffs were generally of a reddish hue, 
but intersected with long white bands. As we advanced, with 
the sun ahead, this valley assumed an extraordinary ap- 
pearance. All the ground began sparkling, as if strewed with 
a profusion of precious stones ; and I easily understood how 
such a sight might have suggested to an imaginative Arab the 
georgeous idea of that valley of Diamonds, where Sinbad once 



THE PASS OF THE CROW. 105 

found himself pining to death amidst inestimable treasures. 
Here, as there, not a vestige of vegetation presented itself; but 
the ground was covered with innumerable fragments of talc, 
as well as pieces of oyster and other shells that glittered and 
twinkled, and blazed with a silver light over a vast expanse as 
they caught the sloping beams of the sun. 

I may as well mention here that a little further on, at a 
place we passed during the night, and noticed only on our re- 
turn, the road had been cut or worn through an immense bed 
of gigantic oyster shells, which seemed to form three fourths 
at least of the substance of the lofty banks on either side. 
These fossils are to be met with in greater or less quantities 
all the way to Siwah, where many of the rocks are nothing but 
huge agglomerations of shells. I was the more particularly 
interested in noticing the fact, because Strabo quotes a passage 
from the geographer Eratosthenes, in which it is stated that 
near the temple of Jupiter Ammon and along the road to it, vast 
quantities of oyster and other shells are found, from which the 
inference is drawn that the Mediterranean Sea formerly ex- 
tended so far inland. 

All the points of the hills overlooking the road were marked 
by the little columns of flat stones I have mentioned : and by 
their assistance we managed to keep the direction along the 
centre of the series of basins of which the valley is formed. 
We now learned that we were descending toward the plain 
by what is called the Nugb el Ghr5,b, or The Pass of the Crow, 
a name which may possibly have some connection with the 
story of the journey of Alexander, and his miraculous extrica- 
tion from difficulties. The names of places in the Desert are 
not often changed ; and if we wish to give a reasonable ex- 
5* 



106 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

planalion of a poetical legend we may, without difficulty, 
suppose that when tlie illustrious traveller lost his way it 
was because he missed this Pass, which appears to be the only 
one by wiiich a descent can be effected to the plain. When 
at length his guides hit upon the right valley, and mentioned 
it as The Pass of the Crow, we can easily imagine how the 
tradition took its rise. Peter Pindar has explained the whole 
philosophy of the thing. 

A little after sunset we came to a steep declivity, down 
which it was necessary to force the camels into a lower part 
of the Pass. At the bottom we halted three or four hours to 
wait fjr the moon, in a position sufficiently romantic and un- 
comfortable. A northeast wind, cold and cutting, came whist- 
ling over the tops of the hills and seemed to be sucked down 
into the hollow, where we sat on the chilly stones wrapped in 
our cloaks, or lay prostrate to snatch a brief spell of sleep. 
On all sides perpendicular masses of rock reared themselves, 
black and frowning, looking like a vast ruined wall encircling 
us ; whilst overhead the Milky Way spanned the heavens, and 
all the constellations shone with a brilliancy known only in the 
East, and, I may add, in the Desert. At about ten the moon 
lifted up its slightly depressed orb over the vast pile of rocks, 
and we were soon again in motion, right glad to escape from 
so bleak a spot. A few hundred yards ahead, after passing a 
narrow defile, an extraordinary scene burst upon us. Whilst 
the irregular line of rocks continued close on our left, we sud- 
denly beheld to the right a groat chasm ; and beyond, glitter- 
ing in the moonlight, and clothed by it, no doubt, with yet 
stranger forms and more gigantic proportions than nature had 
afforded, a huge pile of white rocks, looking like the fortifications 



DESCENT TO THE PLAIN. 107 

of some vast fabulous city, such as Martin would choose to 
paint, or Beckford to describe. There were yawning gateways 
flanked by bastions of tremendous altitude ; there were towers 
and pyramids, and crescents, and domes, and dizzy pinnacles, 
and majpstic castellated heights, all invested with unearthly 
grandeur by the magic beams of the moon, yet exhibiting — in 
wide breaches and indescribable ruin — evident proofs that, dur- 
ing a long course of ages, they had been battered and under- 
mined by the hurricane, the rain-shower, the thunderbolt, the 
winter-torrent, and all the mighty artillery of time. Piled one 
upon another, and repeated over and over again, these strange- 
ly contorted rocks stretched away as far as the eye could 
reach, sinking, however, as they receded, and leading the mind, 
though not the eye, down to the distant plain below. In vain 
did our eager glances endeavor to ascertain the limit of the 
descent to which we had so abruptly come. The horizon was 
dissolved in a misty light; but stars twinkling low down, as if 
beneath our feet, showed that we were about to abandon, once 
for all, the great range along the summit of which we had 
toiled during so many nights and days. 

A gorge, black as Erebus, lay directly across our path ; 
and we had to make a detour to the left in order to reach the 
place where it is practicable for camels. Here there was a 
pause ; for again the generally patient beasts hesitated, and 
moaned and backed, and drew up their long necks and hud- 
dled together; as well, indeed, they might. The declivity was 
steep, and filled with heavy shadows. Precipices hemmed it 
in on very side ; and here and there we could distinguish a 
huge fragment of rock standing, like a petrified giant, in the 
way, and catching pcreliance on its bare sculp some stray 



108 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

beams of sickly light. But down we did go ; the camels, when 
once the impetus was given, carried forward by the weight of 
their burdens, yet keeping their footing with admirable saga- 
city ; we, almost in the same manner, each leading by the 
halter his long-eared monture. In truth it was a picturesque 
scene : — partly lighted by the slanting rays of the moon, partly 
buried in broad masses of shade, and only requiring a few 
Bedawin heads appearing from behind the jagged rocks, and 
the flash of a gun or two, to make it worthy of the pencil of 
Salvator Rosa. According to our guides, some probability ex- 
isted of such an illumination taking place; and our imagina- 
tions were thus supplied with materials to work on, as in the 
solemn hush of that romantic night we scrambled, slid, stag- 
gered, almost rolled down. 

A series of sloping plains and rapid descents, with an occa- 
sional rise, led to the bottom of the pass, where we bivouacked 
for the night. To our left the range of hills had receded out 
of sight ; whilst that to our right, which here and there exhi- 
bited the most fantastic shapes, sometimes of fortresses, some- 
times of pyramids surmounted by sphinxes' heads, stretched 
away in rugged grandeur to the southwest. In every other 
direction opened a plain, above which the dim forms of detach- 
ed hills showed themselves at intervals. 



BIVOUACKING. 109 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Rationale of Bivouacking — The Hill of the Cannons — A Tree in the De- 
sert — Approach of a Caravan — Alarm — Interview with Western Beda- 
wins — Danger of Spoliation — The Date — Caravans — The Gates of the 
Milky Mountains — Architectural Appearance — Tremendous Heat — Ar- 
duous Morning's Work — Approach the Happy, Valle)' — The " Islands of 
the Blessed." 

It must not be supposed from my silence hitherto that camping 
and bivouacking were very easily managed matters. Every 
halt during the whole journey was preceded by a discussion 
amongst ourselves, and a negotiation with old Yunus, to whose 
discretion we were obliged sometimes to submit, knowing that 
in the Desert the interest of the camels must not be wholly 
overlooked, and that it is important for their sakes to choose a 
resting-place near some of the unfrequent patches of vegetation 
with which the beneficent hand of nature has sprinkled the 
road. However, we were often compelled to exert our autho- 
rity to bring up the kafila, which seemed at times to be en- 
dowed with something like perpetual motion ; and then we had 
to encounter grumblings, mutterings, velleities of rebellion, and 
predictions that, by tarrying in these arid places, considering 
our scanty supply of water, we should all perish of thirst. But 



110 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

the best of the joke was, that on other occasions we had to hur- 
ry the old gentleman on ; for he would loiter and loiter, and 
seemed inclined to halt almost as soon as he had started ; and 
then we were punished with ironical miitterings that we should 
reach Siwah that very night, and so forth. Yunus was hard 
to please, being, in fact, determined not to be pleased. Arro- 
gant, self-willed, opinionated, he seemed to have made up his 
mind either to be absolute master or to cause us to suffer 
all the inconveniences which an unwilling servant can inflict. 
On the present occasion we were compelled to be extremely 
peremptory in order to obtain a little sleep, although it was 
more than an hour after midnight. 

Before sunrise we were on foot, and should soon have been 
ready to start had not a small insurrection on the part of the 
grumpy Yunus taken place. The circumstance is too charac- 
teristic to be passed over. Though not, as the reader may 
guess, inclined to luxury, we had brought with us a small sup- 
ply of coffee, with which we occasionally indulged ourselves 
before starting, though often content with a piece of biscuit and 
a pipe. To Yunus, as the head man, we always offered a cup 
at first, which he obstinately refused to accept. The reason 
was, that we always drank it without sugar, as all Orientals do, 
and expected him to do the same. But he seemed to have got 
it into his head that no Europeans drink hitter coffee, as the Arab 
expression has it, and that we secretly put a lump into each of 
our cups, omitting his. This he regarded as a dire offence ; 
and he actually deprived himself of a great enjoyment, rudely 
refusing it indeed, to testify his displeasure. Whenever we 
seemed disposed to treat ourselves he always threw obstacles in 
the way. On the present occasion his ill-temper over, mastered 



HILL OF THE CANNONS. Ill* 

him, and he upset the water just as it was about to boil. This 
was rank rebellion, and it was necessary to give him a good 
setting down. He saw he had gone too far, and swore " Wal- 
lah el Azim !" he had only emptied the coffee-pot because Der- 
weesh had filled it from a bad skin ! We accepted the apology, 
and allowed him to reboil the water. There was a conflict of 
evil passions in his breast, as he crouched over the fire ; and he 
scowled abominably at us, throwing out muttered threats to our 
frightened boys, who believed him capable of leading us into an 
ambuscade, and entreated us by their glances even now to turn 
back and regain their beloved land of Egypt. 

This incident over, we moved along the base of the line of 
white and red cliffs to our right, and crossed the mouth of sev> 
eral glens, all cursed, like the rest of the range, with sterility ; 
while the plain to our left was thickly strewed with hills wear- 
ing at a little distance all sorts of strange shapes — as pyramids, 
gale-entrances, bridges, and tents. One of them, which we 
reached about an hour after starting, is called Garah el Mada- 
fah, " The Hill of the Cannons," from having on its summit 
two large masses of rock shaped exactly like pieces of artillery 
with their carriages. This hill is estimated by the Bedawins 
to be half-way between Haldeh and Garah. Most of the emi- 
nences in this tract of country seemed formed of loose piles of 
crumbling materials, but have generally on their summits huge 
solid masses of rock. 

It is difficult to acquire an idea of the exact formation of a 
country by traversing it once in a direct line at a rapid pace, 
sometimes by night and sometimes by day ; but from what I 
could gather, I should say that there is a general rise all the 
way from the sea to a point some hours to the north of the en- 



112 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

trance of the Nugb el Ghrab. It did not appear to me that the 
bottoms of any of the valleys we traversed were lower than the 
level of the great table-land that stretches from above Mudar to 
the well of Selem. At this well, as the reader will have no- 
ticed, began a series of flat-topped ridges, intersected by flat- 
bottomed valleys, at first parallel, but afterwards running irre- 
gularly in all directions. The general level seemed gradually 
to increase in height, whilst the hills, which were at length all 
detached like islands, become lower and lower. On reaching 
the Nugb el Ghrab, the character of the scenery changed — as 
might naturally have been expected at a place where, in a few 
hours, we were to descend from a height which we had been 
several days in gaining. The pass opens nearly to the south ; 
and leads down the rugged sides of a range of hills or moun- 
tains, that extends northeast and southwest into an immense 
valley or basin, which no geologist has ever explored, but which 
would, doubtless, yield up some curious secrets if properly in- 
terrogated. From what I subsequently observed, I am led to 
believe that the great calcareous range we had traversed, bends 
round on either hand, and completely embraces the plain cov- 
ered with detached hills we were about to steer across. This, 
however, is conjecture. 

We proceeded, gradually leaving the ridge, and engaging 
ourselves amid the islands scattered over the plain. These 
likewise, at length, became fewer and fewer ; and at last we 
saw only the tops of some distant and lofty ones near the hori- 
zon. We were now traversing uneven and stony ground with 
little hollows here and there, and small ups and downs. Scarcely 
any thing like verdure presented itself. Sometimes there was 
a small patch of stunted bushes; and now and then four or five 



A TREE IN THE DESERT. 113 

camels might be seen thrusting down their small snake-like 
heads to one green shrub. In the course of the day, however, 
I remember we came to a shallow basin, ten or twelve feet below 
the general level of the plain, under one of the bluff sides of 
which we saw a solitary tree of elegant shape. Presently af- 
terwards a few clumps of a similar kind made their appearance 
and refreshed our eyes, unaccustomed to the sight of arbores- 
cent vegetation. We had not, indeed, seen any thing in the 
shape of a tree since leaving Alexandria ; and therefore even 
when we found that what we saw were only huge thorns, we 
could not take our eyes off the green of their leaves. Our an- 
imals too seemed all joyous at the sight, and we could with dif- 
ficulty restrain them from crowding under the thin shade cast 
upon the burning ground and improvising a halt. The name 
given to this species of thorn by the Arabs, was Dalagh. Its 
gnarled trunk was covered with gum : the branches were nu- 
merous, tortuous, entangled, and abundantly armed with a long 
white spike. They were covered with bunches of small yellow 
flowers. 

We halted at half-past ten. The heat was so great this 
day, that the thermometer about noon rose to 100° in the shade ; 
and this, too, with a strong wind blowing in gusts that nearly 
carried away our tent. Soon after the stoppage we descried 
some objects in motion ahead, which created the usual interest 
and excitement. Pipes were laid aside and guns taken up. 
For aught we knew the Manser might be coming down upon 
us. It soon appeared, however, that a large caravan was ap- 
proaching. Still there might be cause for alarm. To what 
tribe did these strangers belong ? If hostile to the Waled Ali 
a collision might take place. Presently we beheld a number 



114 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

of armed men advancing ahead of their camels. Our tent, no 
doubt, had attracted their attention, and roused their curiosity, 
perhaps excited their alarm. They came on cautiously as 
towards an enemy, with their muskets half presented. One of 
them at length detached himself and drew near us, keeping a 
little out of the direct line, possibly to allow his companions an 
opportunity of firing in case of necessity. He was a strapping 
giant, above six feet high, with a fine open countenance, high 
Roman nose, and reddish complexion. I could not help ad- 
miring the appearance of this young lion as he crept along, 
slightly bending, with his gun thrown forward, gazing at us 
with eyes, in which distrust and curiosity were amusingly 
blended. As he approached, Yunus, who had more of the 
tiger in his composition than the lion, went with the same pre- 
cautions to meet him ; and we heard them both, with the infer- 
nal suspicion, perhaps necessary in the Desert, bring their 
weapons to full cock ere they came to close quarters. A mo- 
ment afterwards, however, hand-shaking and embracing suc- 
ceeded ; and the whole party coming up, our little encamp- 
ment was soon filled with a set of ruffianly-looking young fel- 
lows with skull-caps, that had been white, pulled nearly over 
their eyes, with brown blankets wrapped closely round them, 
and tucked up in marching trim, and shoes of various colors, 
in various degrees of dilapidation ; many had daggers and pis- 
tols in their belts, from which were suspended shot and powder 
purses, with an amulet or two, and all were armed with long 
guns, some with the addition of bayonets. 

Now began a prodigious number of mutual inquiries, all in 
cut and dried phrases, after one another's health, each of the 
new comers thinking it necessary to ask at least ten times of , 



UNWELCOME VISITORS. 115 

each of our companions how he did. The most satisfactory- 
answers were invariably given, but the anxiety and solicitude 
of these kind people were not easily soothed. They seemed 
really afraid that some peculiar source of sorrow might be 
suppressed through mere delicacy. Exquisite display of the 
finest feelings of the human breast ! I wish I had not detected 
certain covetous glances at various articles of property ; and 
that this affectionate meeting had terminated in any other 
manner than a general cry for drink, and a rush at our water- 
skins. They were but ill supplied for their journey. Impro- 
vidence or poverty, or both, had presided over their arrange- 
ments. I could only see about five small kurlehs distributed 
among the thirty or forty camels that crowded past laden with 
heavy bags of dates. However, the thirsty souls were not un- 
reasonable ; they were made to understand that we could not 
satisfy the wants of the whole party ; and we only spared two 
or three draughts of water to those that seemed the heads of 
this band of youths, among whom he who had advanced to 
reconnoitre was the chief. We received in return for our 
limited civility a small pile of fresh dates of excellent quality ; 
and the information that there was no fever reported at Siwah. 
The party, which came from some point on the coast to the 
West, had only been as far as Garah, where they had obtained 
their winter's provision of dates. They were good-natured, 
but rough customers : I should not have liked to have encoun- 
tered them beyond the range of Yunus's bland eye. 

In the afternoon, not long after we had struck our tent, we 
met another date-caravan, and went through the same process 
of recognition. They were accompanied by a kind of saint 
who communicated his blessing to our Muslim followers. -At 



116 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

sunset we stopped and had a nap. At about an hour before 
midnight, however, we were again in motion, and proceeded at 
a rate far beyond the camel's usual pace for more than three 
hours, passing the hard white mud bed of a dry lake, and 
ascending a series of steps or successive small plains one 
above the other. The whole party walked, driving the don- 
keys on ahead, without any fear of their wandering ; for by 
this time they had become quite accustomed to the camels 
and did not like to be out of their company. On the other 
hand the camels, which at first seemed quite uneasy at seeing 
these little animals trotting round them, and were thrown 
into disorder whenever they crossed their path, had also 
been tamed, so that there was no difficulty in pushing rapidly 
along by the dim light of the moon. It was calculated that 
during this march we had made much more than four miles an 
hour. 

We spread our mats at a quarter past two, but climbed once 
more into the saddle at half-past five. We now discovered that 
we were on the flanks of what are called the Gour-el-laban, or 
the Milky Mountains, and approaching a kind of gateway that 
yawned near its summit. To the left was a vast detached 
rock, as usual in this part of the country, presenting the ap- 
pearance of a citadel with huge round towers and ramparts 
rising in artistic confusion one above another. In front opened 
a narrow pass, whilst to the right, as it were, a stupendous 
bastion was thrown out from a great range of hills, or rather 
mass of rocks, bearing in the low morning sun a most extraor- 
dinary resemblance to an imperial city with domes and towers 
and palaces, more vast and imposing than the Alhambra or the 
Vatican. Of course most of these appearances were optical 



GATES OF THE MILKY MOUNTAINS. IIT 

illusions ; but all the rocks in this country wear a remarkably 
architectural appearance. I am unwilling, not having been 
able to make correct observations, to give an estimate of their 
height ; but for fear of conveying an exaggerated idea, I will 
roughly guess them as at least five or six hundred feet from 
their immediate bases, which rest upon the summit of a great 
ill-defined range of hills very considerably higher. The Gour- 
el-laban when seen from the top of the White Pass on the 
opposite side of Garah at a distance of about thirty miles, form 
a bold feature in the horizon and seem comparatively near, so 
that the pass and the rocks on either hand can be distinctly 
traced. 

Well, having passed through the gates of the Milky iVToun- 
tains, on we went, cheered by the announcement that Garah, 
the vanguard of the Oasis, lay at our feet, down a great valley 
surrounded by frowning rocks, and said to abound in robbers, 
our fingers on the triggers of our guns, our eyes on every pass 
as it opened, and at length safely emerged into a gray gravelly 
plain, the hills all of calcareous formation, receding again to 
the right, and detached rocks showing themselves above the 
horizon, like vessels at sea, to the left. As yet we could see 
nothing to cheer our eyes, except one or two clumps of thorn 
trees ; but these we had beheld the day before amidst the most 
sterile tracts. The hills curved round a little in front and then 
stretched- away lost in a sort of misty light. Sometimes we 
thought we could distinguish the dim feathery summits of palm- 
trees nestling at the foot of the range down at the edge of the 
sloping plain ; but if so, it was athwart a silvery veil of mirage 
that glittered in front and extended in little fragmentary patches 
on every side. The morning was excessively hot, and inured 



118 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

though we were to the rays of the sun, the ride of nearly 
seven hours after a broken night appeared unusually weari- 
some. Our poor donkeys had been three days on a miserably 
scanty supply of water, and were beginning to refuse their 
food. We endeavored to ease them as much as possible by 
toiling along on foot, dragging them after us, but even then 
some of them with difficulty advanced. Exhausted with thirst, 
we stopped the camel that carried the now empty skins, and 
managed to squeeze forth about a quart of warm, turbid, and 
red liquid which we tried to persuade ourselves was better than 
nothing. A dozen long ears were instantly pricked up, and 
Saleh, who carried the can, was regularly chased by the weary 
brutes. — But their lot is to suffer. There was too little for 
them and for us. Besides, were there not refreshing springs 
and delightful shady resting-places ahead ? Push on, push on, 
the Happy Valley is close at hand. 

At length we reached it, rising suddenly over some rounded 
hillocks, and finding ourselves on the edge of a steep cliff that 
descended like a wall at our feet. We here had a good view 
of the desert island, to the shores of which we had so suddenly 
come. It is a level plain, bounded apparently by precipices of 
various height falling sheer from the raised ground on every 
side. Several majestic palm woods stretch their heavy masses 
of sober foliage across ; whilst numerous smaller groups or 
clusters of four or five trunks, or clumps in untrimmed savage 
luxuriance, are scattered over the whole surface. Sand-streaks 
here and there intervene, with a few salt pools, surrounded by 
a white efflorescence like driven snow, and small patches of 
verdure, and little glades. Three or four huge rocks rear their 
giant forms in a line nearly from west to east, like the frag- 



THE HAPPY VALLEY. 119 

ments of a great wall that might formerly h ave divided the 
Oasis in twain. On one of these to our right appeared the 
village of Garah, rising above the palm-trees, and bearing a 
striking resemblance at first sight to an old ruined castle of 
feudal times. The far off rocky amphitheatre that lifts high 
its craggy summits glittering in the sunshine, to look down 
upon this tranquil valley, and the intensely blue sky overhead, 
united to give beauty to the scene, and excite in our breasts, 
by the vivid contrast of barrenness and fertility, life and death 
exerting their sway beneath the infinite emblem of immortal 
serenity, mingled emotions of wonder and delight. 

I should not envy the feelings of one who, after traversing 
the frightful solitudes of the Libyan Desert, checkered only by 
a mockery of vegetation, could express a cold disappointment 
at beholding the Oasis of Garah. What more can be desired ? 
There are trees and there are human habitations bursting on 
your sight in the heart of the wilderness ; and though you can- 
not see you can feel the presence of pleasant fountains of water. 
If you are a painter, endeavor to represent the softly pencilled 
outline of this simple yet admirable prospect — those frowning 
distant piles of craggy peaks, the irregular wall of white cliffs 
which nature has reared around the Oasis itself, those little 
nooks that retreat on either hand, the stately columnar trees 
which in every variety of group crowd at your feet, the bold 
masses of rock thrown here and there among them, the decrepit 
village on the hill, and above all the ineffably pure atmosphere 
that reveals or bestows the sharp brilliant clearness which 
every form, every line, every mass presents ; and if you fail in 
conveying a true idea of this enchanting scene, confess that 



120 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

your skill as well as your imagination is at fault, and do not 
blame those who, perhaps equally unable to fix these beauties 
upon canvas, made amends by painting all the Oasis in one 
short simple phrase : — " The Islands of the Blessed." 



THE HAPPY VALLEY. 121 



CHAPTER IX. 

First Interview with the Natives — Their Physical Conformation — Costume 
— No Smokers— Sheikh Abd-el-Sayid — Visit to the Village of Garah— 
Decomposition of the Rock — Its defensible Character — Curious Mode of 
Building — Unwholesomeness — We appear in the Character of Healers 
of the Sick — Gratitude of the People — Comfortable Evening — Windy 
Night — Second Visit to the Village—Burying Place — Sheikh's Tomb — 
A'l'n Mochaloof — Tradition of Christian Times — Superstition — Charms 
— Incantations — Industry of the Oasis — Mat and Basket Making — Cul- 
tivation of the Palm Tree — Remains of an Ancient Fountain — " Afn 
Faris" — Other Ruins — Character of the People of Garah — The Wander- 
ing Blacksmith — Weapons — Wolves — Tribute to the Pasha — Dispro= 
portion between the Sexes — Women brought from Egypt — Number of 
Palm Trees— Trade, &c. 

We had hastened forward, each eager to catch the first view of 
the long-wished-for valley. The camels and our attendants, 
however, soon came up, and gathered on the brink of the pre- 
cipice. It now became a question how we were to descend. A 
gorge at some distance to the right seemed to afford every faci- 
lity we could desire, but it would have taken us, weary as we 
were, an hour perhaps to reach it over the rough broken ground 
that intervened. So, casting about, we at length discovered 
what a besieging party might have called a practicable breach. 



122 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

Down this we scrambled, animals and all ; and soon were 
trampling through a little grove. The delight experienced on 
such occasions is indescribable ; but if 1 might be allowed to 
reverse the common order of comparison, I would say it resem- 
bled the feeling of a reader who, after wading through a whole 
volume of dreary misanthropic sentiments, comes suddenly up- 
on a passage full of tenderness and beauty. Our eyes, that had 
grown dizzy with gazing on sand and rock, rock and sand, from 
the rising up until the going down of the sun, now fed passion- 
ately on the verdure that drooped into natural arcades on every 
side ; and we slowly wended our way in the silence of unutter- 
able satisfaction to the halting ground. 

This was under the eastern side of the village, at the foot 
of the hill, on a little plain surrounded by precipices and groves. 
We did not see any sign of inhabitants, and sought at once the 
shelter of a palm-clump. By this is meant an impenetrable 
cluster of short trunks, with long pensile branches shooting out 
close to the ground ; they generally have the aspect of a round 
mass of foliage, fifteen or sixteen feet high, and twenty or thirty 
broad ; but over some of them two or three feathery heads 
v/ave aloft in the air, supported on their gracefully inclined 
stems. By cutting away some of the lowest boughs we suc- 
ceeded in forming a most agreeable sheltered nook ; and spread- 
ing our cloaks on the sand, lay down to enjoy the unaccustom- 
ed luxury of an impervious shade. We should have been per- 
haps more comfortable in one of the groves we had traversed, 
but the Bedawins had preferred the neighborhood of the village. 
However, there was no cause to complain. Our bower was as 
delightful as if it had been formed of asphodel ; whilst on all 
sides the scorching, rays of the sun beat down upon the parched 



FIRST INTERVIEW WITH THE NATIVES. 123 

ground, over which the victorious palm vegetation rose here 
and there. Numerous ligneous plants, and the rich green 
" aghoul" (Jiedysarum alhagi), covered the little inequalities, 
and served to bind the otherwise inconstant soil. 

The first living being we saw was a half-negro-looking boy, 
who came suddenly upon us, and walking boldly up, saluted 
each of us with " Maak Salam !" (" With thee be peace !") 
Whilst giving the salutation he extended his right hand to 
every member of the party in succession, and then laid it re- 
spectfully on his breast. By degrees several other lads and a 
man made their appearance, and went through the same for- 
malities ; which done, they squatted down in a row, and ex- 
amined our appearance with as much curiosity as we did theirs. 
In manners they were grave and decent. White or brown 
shirts, with long loose sleeves, and takiahs, or thin linen skull- 
caps, usually worn under the tarboosh, formed their costume. 
It was impossible not at once to recognize a mixed race. I 
suppose we subsequently became acquainted with nearly every 
inhabitant of Garah ; and all seemed to have the same unde- 
termined physiognomy. Some were almost perfect blacks ; 
others had the retreating forehead, the depressed nose, and pro- 
jecting lower jaw of the negro, with a pale sallow complexion; 
others, again, presented an insignificant collection of features, 
small fiat foreheads, little irregular noses, high cheek bones, 
diminutive eyes, and thin lips. All were nearly destitute of 
any sign of a beard. Our visitors exchanged a few words with 
one another in a disagreeable squeaking jargon, which we after- 
wards found to be a dialect of the Berber language ; but all un- 
derstood Arabic, and when we politely offered them pipes, as 
politely explained that they did not smoke. We found the same 



124 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

sobriety in this respect among all the people of this family. It 
partly arises from the strictness of their belief, partly from 
poverty. Some privately indulge in snufF. 

Presently, a little dark-complexioned man, wearing a tur- 
ban, and in all respects better dressed than the others, presented 
himself, followed by two boys, one bearing a basket of fine 
dates, the other a red earthen brock of slightly brackish water, 
stopped up by a handful of palm-fibres, to keep the content* 
cool. This was Abd-el-Sayid, the sheikh of the village, who 
seemed equally civil and obliging in his manners with those 
ever whom his paternal authority extended. A conversation 
ensued, in which we endeavored to gain information about the 
place, and to explain the reason of our visit in a satisfactory 
manner. The latter object, however, was difficult to compass, 
as the worthy man's ideas were rather limited. We found it 
indeed necessary to abstain from very forcibly insisting that we 
had no views of business or revenue in going to Siwah. He 
could not conceive why any but people connected with the 
government should undertake such a journey ; and we after- 
wards found that all the curiosity we expressed about ruins and 
catacombs was understood to mean that we were in search of 
treasure. 

We naturally passed the day in rest. Towards evening, 
however, I went with Longshaw to visit the village. It had been 
anticipated that some difficulty would be made about admit- 
ting us ; and there was certainly a little hesitation in the sheikh's 
manner when, on the announcement of our intentions, he gave 
directions to a man to conduct us. But hospitality prevailed 
over suspicion ; and we approached this curious stronghold. It 
is situated, as I have said, on one of a line of large detached 



] 



RUINS OF GARAH. 125 

rocks that stretches across the valley. The appearance of 
these rocks and of numerous others scattered here and there in 
the Oasis suggests the idea that a portion of this tract was for- 
merly on a level with the table-land around, and that in a long 
series of ages a great part has been decomposed and dispersed. 
On the right hand of the path which leads in the direction of 
Siwah this process is evidently going on with great rapidity. 
There are signs of the operation of some agent which eats into 
the rock, principally towards its base, detaching large portions, 
leaving them isolated, and then perforating them in various di- 
rections, forming natural caverns and arches, and at length 
bringing them down into a confused mass of ruins. In several 
instances there were large masses shaped like pears, twenty or 
thirty feet broad at top, and only three or four at bottom. Cat- 
acombs had been cut in various places by the old inhabitants ; 
and these are in many instances opened and half-eaten away. 

I believe the valley of Garah is not entirely surrounded by 
precipices, although it had that appearance from every point we 
vished. There must be an opening to the eastward into the 
great Desert, whither the detritus of the decomposing rocks is 
most probably carried by the wind. The isolated masses I have 
mentioned v/ill soon disappear in great part. The village hill 
itself is eaten into on every side ; and large masses have given 
way long since it was selected as a building site. Houses in 
whole or in part have gone down in ruins, leaving fragments 
of palm-rafiers still projecting. This is more especially ob- 
servable on the south side, where the winding pathway that 
leads to the gate ascends. 

The gateway is of stone ; but the gate itself is formed of 
several rough-hewn pieces of the palm-tree tied together, and 



126 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

swinging on hinges of camel hide. It is somewhat difficult 
of approach, well commanded, and might easily be defended 
against an irresolute enemy. Within, the path is steeper than 
without, and is covered by a wall on the right, and the cata- 
combed rock on the left. It leads through a low, narrow en- 
trance into the principal street or passage, which is nothing but 
a dark tortuous crevice, partly formed by the living rock, partly 
by the walls of the lower tier of houses, whilst the floors of the 
upper ones, consisting of palm-rafters laid close together, con- 
stitute the roof. In most places, as we crept onwards, we could 
feel a kind of divan, or seat of stone or mud, running along on 
either hand. There are only two openings by which the light 
of day penetrates into this curious pile, one at an angle to the 
west, and containing a deep well of brackish water, inferior to 
that in the well outside, another in the centre, called the market- 
place. In the streets none but the people themselves could find 
the way except by the aid of a lantern. The whole village is 
exceedingly dirty, and the atmosphere perfectly stifling. We 
were indeed by no means surprised to hear that the inhabitants 
never exceeded forty persons, although, from the number of 
houses, there appeared to be room for a much greater popula- 
tion. As at Siwah, it is the custom, when the son of a family 
takes a wife, for the father to build him a dwelling on the roof 
of his own, and so on until there are several stories, not com- 
municating internally, but from without, by means of flights of 
mud steps or ladders. This is the reason why Garah originally 
became a heap of little habitations covering nearly the whole 
surface of the rock, and now for the most part consists of un- 
sightly ruins. Of late, of course, no fresh additions have been 
made, there being so many empty houses. The upper ones 



UNWHOLESOMENESS OF GARAH. 127 

are nearly all roofless. No attempt at repair is visible ; but 
the unwholesome wretches kennel in the decrepit pile^ amidst 
rubbish and all kinds of filth. The air is heavy, clammy, and 
unpleasantly hot. How indeed can the refreshing breezes that 
fan the rest of the valley penetrate through loopholes scarcely 
larger than the bung-hole of a cask, or through those dismal 
crooked ways, which seem twisted on purpose to exclude it ? 
The market-place by day is a perfect furnace, receiving the 
scorching rays of the sun, and without the least attempt at ven- 
tilation. It is impossible that such a place can be healthy; 
and we must not, therefore, wonder if the inhabitants are few 
and sickly-looking. Their poultry live with them in their 
houses, their goats scramble over the roofs as over the neighbor- 
ing rocks, and of course do not contribute to increase the salu- 
brity of the air. What other impurities might have been seen 
aloft I know not ; but the whole live stock of the Oasis is evi- 
dently confined within the walls at night ; and I remember that, 
as we were starting, an ass, imprisoned in the highest of the 
round, tower-like huts, at the eastern extremity of the village, 
thrust forth its head, like that in Lucian, from a window, and 
brayed a long farewell to its Egyptian kindred ! 

Fever is of course prevalent in this den. A. poor fellow 
was brought to us as we sat smoking on a clean mat spread for 
us in the centre of the market-place. Half the population 
crowded round to explain his ailment ; which was, however, 
pretty clear in itself. He had been five years subject to in- 
termittent attacks ; and we were expected to lay our hands 
upon him and heal him. We had not the stoicism to announce 
that he was far beyond our unscientific aid ; and a harmless 
prescription, that might afford some temporary relief, procured 



128 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

US the good will of the whole village. I shall often think again, 
not without emotion, of my jocund friend, Longshaw, de- 
scending like Hope amidst this moiety of a little nation — all 
united by the ties of blood — and with one wave of his pill-box 
lighting up their countenances with joy and gratitude. Nor 
will the circumstance ever by me be forgotten, that next day 
we could scarcely defend ourselves from a medical fee, in the 
shape of what to all appearance was the last fowl in the 
village, which the poor people wanted to force upon our ac- 
ceptance. 

On our return to the tent, we found that Lamport and 
Forty, instead of satisfying a selfish curiosity, had superin- 
tended the preparations for our first supper in the Oasis ; and 
were ready to give us a hospitable reception. Two stewed 
fowls, and a large wooden-dish of thin cakes of dhourra flour 
cooked in oil, were the contributions made by Sheikh Abd-el- 
Sayid to the repast, to which were joined from our stores 
several handfuls of broken biscuit, and the ever-grateful tea- 
pot, that on this occasion dispensed its blessings with an un- 
limited liberality only to be accounted for by an inexhaustible 
supply of hot water. The fragrant pipe succeeded ; and the 
evening would have passed in perfect repose, had riot a violent 
storm of wind arisen, and more than once swept the tent from 
over our heads. It was only during a prolonged halt, as at 
Garah and Mudar, that we indulged ourselves in this shelter 
at night ; but, inured as we were to sleeping under the canopy 
of heaven — too lofty and comprehensive a covering, by the 
way, to excite all the comfortable sympathies of one's own bed- 
curtains — we. still determined not tamely to yield to the attacks 
of Boreas, and at length succeeded in giving sufficient stability 



SECOND VISIT TO GARAH. 129 

to the tent, which however wavered and flapped, and bent and 
moaned over our heads all night beneath the furious blast. A 
whole legion of musquitoes besides, were driven in for shelter, 
and assaulting our legs, unprotected by boots and straps, 
and less weather-proof than our hands and faces, soon 
covered them with blood. Sleep, however, we did, in spite of 
all annoyances — a sound hearty sleep, which only weary 
travellers experience ; — and were up again early in the morn- 
ing ready to make the best of the little time we had for be- 
coming acquainted with the Oasis. ' 

I first made a sketch of the village from the summit of a 
rock to the northeast ; and then went with the rest of the party 
on a second visit to the interior. This was a much moi'e cere- . 
monious affair than the other ; and there was even some talk 
of admitting us into the Sheikh's house. The good man, al- 
though we made no request to that effect, seemed to think we 
desired to satisfy our curiosity, and promised spontaneously to 
treat us to coffee on his own private divan. This would have 
been equivalent to introducing us into the harim in Egypt ; and 
prejudice triumphed over hospitality. When the critical mo- 
ment arrived the good man had disappeared. We sat expect- 
ant some time on a clean mat chatting with the people, and 
changing a dollar for one of them, as an especial mark of 
politeness. Meanwhile there was a great bustling about and 
whispering, and show of mystery. At length one of the poorest 
men came and offered as an alternative to ask us into his sis- 
ter's house. There was an evident expression of fear in his 
face lest we should accept ; so we relieved his mind by saying 
it was necessary we should return to the tent. Knowing as we 
6* 



130 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

did the strength of the prejudice these poor people had striven 
to overcome, it was impossible to feel in the least offended. 

Forty and I now got a guide to take us to a place which 
the natives counted among the curiosities likely to interest a 
stranger. On our way, close under the village, we noticed a 
little burying-place with about twenty graves. A couple of 
Sheikh's tombs, little round whitewashed houses, were the only 
religious edifices conspicuous in the Oasis ; although we did 
hear a man calling to prayers from the roof of one of the 
houses, which may probably therefore be a kind of mosque. 

A walk of about half a mile along the foot of the preci- 
pices which bound the valley, brought us to a little glen, or 
rather nook, enlivened by a few trees and shrubs, with some 
tufts of grass. At the extremity we observed a deep trough 
or basin, containing about two feet of exceedingly clear water, 
supplied from a large upright crevice in the rock, into which I 
entered. It had all the appearance of being artificial ; and 
turning short round, seemed to lead into the very bowels of the 
mountain. The water, sweet and cool, was trickling in large 
clear drops from the slimy sides, and seems never to fill the 
basin to overflowing. But, said our guide, in former times a 
full stream gushed forth, and ran with a rapid current down 
towards the centre of the valley, where it formed lakes and 
vastly increased the fertility of the place. Some earthquake 
had either choked the way or diverted the water. This ac- 
count found the more credit with us, as we could trace the 
semblance of a dried-up stream proceeding from the crevice 
down the glen and across the plain, until it was lost among the 
palm-trees. No doubt the cessation of this supply has pro- 



SUPERSTITION. 1|1 

duced a great effect on the prosperity of Garah ; and it is the 
more to be regretted, as the water which we tasted was exqui- 
site, whereas all the wells have either a salt or a bitter taste. 
The people of the place throw back as usual the origin of this 
at least semi-artificial fountain to the time of the Christians ; 
but have no idea how long ago it ceased to dispense its boun- 
ties. Probably the accident happened at a comparatively recent 
period ; and may be repaired by another convulsion of nature. 
Whilst returning from Ain Muchaluf we had a mysterious 
communication from our guide. It seems that a few days pre- 
viously his harim had been entered, and the habara, or black 
silk wrapper, of his daughter secretly purloined therefrom ; so 
to us he applied for advice and assistance under the circum- 
stances. What could we do but recommend him to appeal to 
the patriarchal authority of the Sheikh ? This, however, would 
not serve his purpose. He imagined us to be possessed of cer- 
tain supernatural powers, by which we could not only heal the 
sick, but penetrate the mysteries of iniquity. Magic and 
medicine are indissolubly connected in these people's minds. 
In round terms, therefore, he begged us to write a paper and 
discover the thief. I was not so much surprised at the man's 
superstition as I might have been had I come direct from Eno-- 
iand. I have seen ladies of European extraction in Alexan- 
dria, when their minds were perplexed about their love affairs, 
send for a magician, who, on payment of one piastre, made 
certain mystic marks on a piece of paper, and foretold exactly 
when their lovers would visit them ; and though day after day 
the prediction proved false, yet the delusion was not destroyed, 
and the same mummery was repeated with the same success. 
We could not, therefore, be very much provoked by the poor 



132 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

fellow's mistake, though we were somewhat so by the obstinacy 
with which he persisted in his demand, after we had assured 
him of our incompetency to comply with it. 

It is worth observing that in the East, as elsewhere, the 
exercise of the magical art is considered any thing but respecta- 
ble, and that to call a man a magician is a serious affront. 
Heretics and unbelievers are supposed to be the greatest adepts 
on account of their familiar communion with the evil one. 
Some Muslims, however, follow the lucrative and idle trade ; 
but they are always, 1 believe, Moggrebbis, men from the 
West, that is, from Fez and Morocco. Even in the Alf Leileh- 
wa-Leileh, as related at least by the storytellers of the coffee- 
houses, all the magicians introduced come from the West ; 
and both in Alexandria and Cairo there are man)'- individuals 
of this race who gain their livings by divinations, incantations, 
writing love-charms, &c. However, I have never heard of 
any thing remarkable, even as a coincidence, being performed 
by them ; and am disposed to think, from all I have seen, that 
they ate the most vulger impostors imaginable. Some tourists 
speak of them in a mysterious sort of way as if they really 
possessed supernatural powers, or at least extraordinary in- 
genuity ; but there is a tendency, even in the most virtuous 
of this class of writers, to accept with easy good faith the in- 
terested exaggerations of their dragomans, and the waggish con- 
fidences of idle European residents. In my intercourse with 
the natives of Egypt I have found that the belief in magic is 
almost universally spread ; but so is the belief in miracles 
worked by saints dead or alive. It is not, therefore, necessary 
to suppose that the popular opinion often receives any cor- 
roboration from accident or the operations of an occult science. 



CHARMS INCANTATIONS. Ig3 

Hundreds of women with the curse of sterility upon them pay 
ineffectual visits to the tombs of fruit-giving Sheikhs, but the 
number of votaries never diminishes. In like manner hundreds 
of treasure-seekers, or victims of robbery, apply to the Mog- 
grebbis for information, without success ; but the delusion still 
continues, and trade thrives. Some of the more prudent of 
these wise men of the West undertake only to prophesy of the 
distant future. I once had my fortune told in one of the 
bazaars for the small sum of ten paras, about one halfpenny, 
by a little old man in a gray felt cap. He first asked me my 
mother's name, then my age, then the month in which I was 
born, and proceeded to make a kind of mumbled calculation, 
in which the three facts I had put him in possession of con- 
stantly recurred. The result was that I was, firstly, to be 
very rich ; secondly, to marry a handsome woman ; and, 
thirdly, to be the father of a large family of children. To 
insure the fulfilment of the second part of the prophecy I 
made the acquisition of a love-charm, written on a long slip of 
paper in black and red ink, for ten paras more. 

Having consoled our honest guide as well as possible foi 
his disappointment, we returned to the tent. I had, however, 
in the weanwhile planned another expedition to explore what 
I thought must be some ancient remains, situate in a distant 
grove of palm-trees. The same man agreed to accompany 
me, and after a short rest I started, passing round the south 
side of the village and taking a westerly direction. On the 
path we met a number of donkeys — all most diminutive — laden 
with dates, palm-branches, and provender. The men or boys 
who accompanied them looked at me with curiosity, but with- 
out rudeness, and asked no questions respecting me, although, 



184 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

as I learned, they had been out all night at the extremity of 
the valley, and had not heard of the arrival of strangers. We 
passed through a tract covered with rushes, which afford great 
scope to the industry of the inhabitants. They make excellent 
round and square mats, and zemhils, or baskets. The latter, 
which are in great request for carrying the dates, are no doubt 
a source of some profit. 

On all sides also grew the " aghoul," or Hedysarum Alliagi 
of Linnseus — of a bright green color, checkering the white 
sand. It is of immense utility in the Oasis ; donkeys and 
camels feed on it both fresh and dry ; and they seem to collect 
an immense stock for consumption during the hot weather. 
Both here and at Sivvah we constantly met droves of dwarf 
donkeys staggering under huge heaps of it. They generally 
cut it, collect it in square bundles, and leave it to dry like hay 
in the sun. It serves also the purpose of manure for the palm- 
trees, being placed, towards the end of October, in little 
trenches round the roots, after which a stream of water is 
turned upon it. I have never noticed in any other country this 
care bestowed on the cultivation of the palm. 

In about three quarters of an hour we came to the skirts of 
a large date grove, and my guide halting, told me we had 
reached the term of our walk. At first I could distinguish no- 
thing but a large piece of open and uneven ground ; but he 
soon drew my attention to the remains of a vast wall that had 
formerly inclosed an oval space one hundred paces in its ex- 
treme length. The action of the air had almost completely de- 
composed the upper surface of the stones, but I soon found that 
the wall had been constructed with large square blocks. 
There was an opening at either extremity, but nothing seemed 



REMAINS OF AN ANCIENT FOUNTAIN. 185 

to reveal the character of the building. My guide said it was 
the remnant of an ancient fortified village that had been built 
on the same plan with theirs, and I cannot guess what else it 
could have been. Near at hand were some trenches eight 
feet long by two broad, lined with brickwork in tolerably good 
preservation. They were now nearly filled with rubbish, but 
as I was told had often been cleared out in search of treasure. 
My guide watched my face anxiously as I examined them ; and 
in the childish voice peculiar to his race, told me of the labors 
that had been undertaken on the chance of finding one of those 
pots of gold which haunt the imaginations of all Orientals. In 
a few minutes more he gave me an illustration of the magical 
power of gold, the bare hope of finding which triumphs over an 
indolence not to be conquered by any rational incitement to in- 
dustry. Close by, under the shade of a beautiful clump of 
palms, was what appeared at first sight a mere pool of pellucid 
water. The name of Ain Faris attracted my notice ; and on 
attentive examination I saw that it must have been an ancient 
fountain, as about a foot below the surface was the mouth of 
a broad circular well lined with excellent solid masonry in per- 
fect preservation. In front of this was a square cistern, some 
sixty or seventy feet each way, the walls of which, having been 
more exposed to the action of the atmosphere, were honey- 
combed and ruined. Two or three conduits that had in ancient 
times been cased with stone still drew off the water. A beau- 
tiful clump of palm-shrubs, with three or four lofty trunks, 
drooped over the fountain, whilst the margin of the cistern was 
fringed with luxuriant vegetation. A long vista between the 
groves led the eye to the castellated village of Garah, which 
may be descried from almost any point of this little Oasis. A 



136 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

man with a donkey-load of dates came up whilst I was viewing 
the scene, and entered into conversation with my guide. He 
seemed quite puzzled to know what brought me there ; and 1 
have little doubt he suspeeted I was a magician from the West on 
the look-out for treasure. He was one of a party of two or 
three that had been out for some time on the borders of the De- 
sert gathering an inferior kind of date which grows quite wild, 
and is used as food for donkeys and camels. 

I asked what was the measurement of the well, and was 
told that some Siwahis had once cleared it to the depth of four 
fathoms, and a large heap of black soil, mixed with fragments 
of pottery, was indicated to attest the truth of the assertion. On 
that occasion the water gushed forth much more plentifully, but 
laziness and the Garah people are dear friends, and no attempt 
was made to keep the source clear. " We are poor wretches," 
was my guide's humble confession, " and have not the heart to 
undertake any thing new." He gave the same answer when I 
asked why there were here no pomegranates, no bananas, no 
grapes, as at Siwah. They had not the courage to attempt a 
garden, and were content to pass their lives in growing dates 
and weaving baskets to export them in. 

1 returned by very nearly the same path I took in going, 
my guide, who seemed to understand that T was in quest of in- 
formation, becoming by degrees more and more communicative. 
He first showed me near the foundation before mentioned a 
hollow in a rock, where there were some traces of fire. This, 
he said, was the station generally adopted by a kind of travel- 
ling blacksmith, who, once a year, makes a tour among the 
Bedawin tribes. His business was to mend guns, make knives, 
&c., and he stays a i^ew days at Garah, principally em- 



INHABITANTS OF GARAH. 137 

ployed in fabricating a peculiar kind of saw-knife for cutting 
dates or " aghoul/' which is the constant companion of these 
people. The form of the blade is that of a small segment of a 
circle, with the straight side serrated ; the wooden handle is 
about a cubit in length. 

I asked what means of defence in the shape of firearms the 
inhabitants of Garah possessed, and was told only two guns, 
which belonged to nobody in particular, being generally in- 
trusted to the most expert. They sometimes use them to shoot 
crows, which are considered a delicacy ; but they never waste 
powder on the numerous wolves and jackals which come down 
from the mountains at night to feed on the fallen dates. These 
predatory animals are allowed to return unmolested to their 
haunts unless they happen to fall into the traps sometimes laid 
for them. I suppose that in case of an attack of Bedawins di- 
rected against their village they would use these guns ; but 
not to resist robberies of the produce of their trees, to which 
they quietly submit, preferring to apply for redress to the 
Sheikh-el-Arab, from whom they generally succeed in getting 
some kind of compensation. We saw moreover one or two 
spears in the hands of the Garah folks ; and their date-knives 
are no doubt on a pinch converted into weapons. Altogether 
they are a simple, humble, and hospitable people ; very oblig- 
ing and very unenterprising, and have narrowed the circle of 
their wants to accord with the limited range of their industry. 
Those with whom I spoke freely acknowledged that much might 
be done in the way of improvement, especially by the introduc- 
tion of new trees and by clearing out the wells ; but why should 
they trouble themselves ? They had enough for their absolute 
support, and felt no desire for more. The fact is, their isolated 



138 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

position in the midst of the desert seems to have completely dis- 
couraged them and broken their spirit, especially as it deprives 
them of the advantages of civilized society and active com- 
munion with the world without protecting them from oppression. 
Three hundred dollars are yearly exacted from these miserable 
creatures by the Pasha's government. It is said that there are 
only generally forty souls in the village. According to my guide's 
account, however, the numbers must have been greater at the 
particular moment at which we arrived ; as there were twenty- 
two children in the village, of which fifteen were male. This 
disproportion between the sexes always exists at Garah ; so 
that a great many men are compelled to lead a life of single- 
blessedness. Sometimes afellaha girl is imported from the val- 
ley of the Nile, as was the custom of some of the desert tribes 
of old — " His mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt" 
(Gen. xxi. 21). Occasionally they procure a female slave 
from Siwah. The people of the latter place are too proud to 
give their daughters in marriage to a Garah man, who is looked 
upon as an inferior being. I was amused with the simplicity 
with which my companion stated the existence of this opinion, 
and with the tacit acknowledgment he made that it was not so 
very erroneous after all. 

Property in the valley of Garah consists almost entirely of 
date-trees. Of these there are fourteen hundred, unequally 
divided amongst the heads of families, some of whom possess 
above two hundred, whilst one or two are masters only of 
twenty-five. There are nine wells ; four tolerably copious ones 
to the west of the village, and five much choked with sand to 
the east. Besides the above-mentioned trees, which are regu- 
larly counted and cultivated, numerous wild clumps rise here 



INHABITANTS OF GAR AH, ' 139 

and there, bearing an inferior fruit, used for food for camels 
and asses. I could not make out that, with the exception of 
the rushes already noticed and the " aghoul," these poor peo- 
ple receive any thing else from their soil. Formerly they had 
large water-melons ; but indolence has induced them to aban- 
don the use of this agreeable fruit. In exchange for their 
baskets and their dates — the crop of which is good only on ev- 
ery alternate year — they procure a little wheat from the Beda- 
wins, who bring it from Alexandria or Cairo, and also samni, 
" clarified butter." Their other wants are supplied by the 
caravans which pass periodically between Siwah and the land 
of Egypt, stopping at Garah on their way. Upon the whole, 
the contemplation of their state produced a mixed feeling of 
pain and pleasure, caused by the observation of many amiable 
qualities associated with profound and unresisted misery. Had 
they been like savage nations unconscious of their plight, we 
might have congratulated them on their indifference ; but they 
seemed perfectly aware of their condition, and spoke to us with 
the whining resignation of a people that has seen better days, 
but does not choose to exert itself to behold them again. 



140 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 



CHAPTEU X. 

Affectionate Farewell of the People of Garah — A Siwahi joins our Party — 
Ascent from the Valley — Beautiful Sunset — Dismal Gorges — Lofty 
Table-land — Temperature 102° in the Shade — Nugb-el-Mejebbery — 
Legend of Brigand Bedawins — The Gates of the OSsis — A Caravan of 
Oasians— Interview — Enter the Valley — Beautiful View — Our first 
Reception — Reach a Spring — Another Caravan — Halt near a Hamlet 
— Presents sent to us — We find we are not welcome — Their Ethno- 
logical Ideas. 

On the afternoon of the 1st of October we were again ready 
to start. Our little caravan collected round the well ; and the 
villagers, some of them bearing light spears, came out to be- 
hold our departure and bid us farewell. The skins of water 
were slung across the unwilling camels — to bring which near 
the well a great deal of manoeuvring was necessary — and we 
began to move. Then came a general explosion of polite sen- 
timents — " Maak salaam !" (with you be peace !) was the 
unanimously expressed wish of the whole population as they 
one and all touched our hands and then laid theirs to their 
breasts. There was nothing of that cry for " backshish" which 
disgusts one in an Egyptian village ; but the Sheikh waited 
with decent patience for our present, and received it with be- 
coming and not undignified gratitude. T must mention that 



DEPARTURE FROM GARAH. 141 

we now found our party increased by a Siwahi who happened 
to be at Garah, and seized on this opportunity of returning 
safely to his native place. We were not displeased with his 
companionship, as it seemed probable he might assist in spread- 
ing a good feeling towards us among his countrymen on our 
arrival. He was armed with a gun and a date-knife ; with 
which latter he distinguished himself by chopping up a snake 
that imprudently showed itself in the path. 

We slowly made our way across the valley, which was 
covered with sand-heaps and low brushwood mingled with palm- 
trees and clumps. Before reaching the pass that leads up to 
the general level of the desert, we plucked some delicious blue 
dates from a tree loaded with fruit, to refresh us ere we entered 
on the arduous part of our journey. The ascent was difficult ; 
but, when once achieved, brought us to a pretty level gray 
gravelly plain, across which we went at an accelerated pace 
until after nightfall. The sunset this evening was particularly 
beautiful. During about a quarter of an hour we rode under 
a canopy of rosy clouds that stretched from horizon to horizon, 
and seemed to increase gradually in splendor until, suddenly 
fading, " all was gray." During our journey over the desert 
we seldom noticed that the beginning and close of day dis- 
played any peculiar brilliance of color. I remember once, 
however, observing, when the sun was just dipping beneath the 
horizon, that four or five columns of beams, if I may so express 
myself, rose against a saffron ground, widening by degrees and 
exhibiting all the variegated tints of the rainbow. In about an 
hour more we came to the foot of the range of hills which, as 
I have said, overlooks the valley of Garah, and began to ascend 
a series of horrible gorges by starlight. The darkness was so 



14r2 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

great that we could distinguish nothing but huge black nnasses 
of rock on either hand ; amidst which for some time we 
threaded our way with considerable labor and at imminent risk. 
It was scarcely possible for a desert-ride to be more romantic 
or impressive ; for, in addition to the actual perils of the steep 
and uncertain path, were those pictured to us by the panic- 
struck Bedawins, who now maintained more stoutly than ever 
that in these apparently uninhabited solitudes there were roam- 
ing wild and desperate men who, at any moment, might be ex- 
pected to pounce upon us from behind some overhanging rock. 
However, we proceeded until a quarter past eight, when, after 
a five hours' ride, we picked out a tolerably smooth place 
among the stones, and lay down until three hours after mid- 
night. The moon then lighted our way until dawn, by which 
time we had ascended another pass and reached a broad plain 
or table-land. As the first streaks of light appeared above the 
horizon we could just distinguish far below the immense tract 
of country we had traversed ; but before the sun came to our 
aid we could see nothing in our rear save the near horizon fol- 
lowing closely on our footsteps, and ahead and on all sides 
nothing but one scarcely deviating surface. We continued 
until we had made rather more than six hours, and then rested 
until the heat of the day had subsided. The thermometer at 
this elevated spot reached 102° in our tent. On account of the 
hardness of the ground, we found at first so much difficulty in 
driving the pegs, that we had a great mind to give up the job. 
But the prospect of a few hours' release from the torrent of 
light and heat poured down upon that arid plain made us per- 
severe ; and at length we had the pleasure of creeping under 
the friendly canvas, and breathing a comparatively cool at- 



LEGEND OF BRIGAND BEDAWINS. 143 

mosphere. These were usually the most cheerful moments of 
the day ; and I confess that, in common with the whole party, 
I never recur with greater delight to any incidents of our 
journey than to our mid-day halts, during which, after a frugal 
dinner — naturally the first care — we smoked our pipes, wrote 
our journals, repaired any disasters that might have occurred 
in the previous twenty-four hours to our costume, and made 
our provision for the succeeding ride, sometimes concluding 
with a nap, sometimes with a tough discussion. When the 
hour came — usually about the asser, between three and four 
o'clock— each man packed up his carpet-bag, the tent was taken 
down, and off we were again in a very short time after the 
word of command was given. 

From three o'clock to sunset we proceeded across the same 
table-land ; but at length perceived several chasms opening on 
either side and in front of us. One of these proved to be the 
descent towards the lower country. We had at length 
traversed the ridge that separates Garah from Siwah ; and as 
soon as we had disengaged ourselves from its outworks and the 
spurs it throws forward, we were promised a view of the Gates 
of the Oasis. The pass we now entered was called Nugb-el- 
Mejebbery, and had a tradition connected with it. Some time 
ago, it is said, a party of fifty brigand Bedawins determined to 
waylay a caravan on its way from the coast. In order to take 
it more completely by surprise, they piled up fifty small heaps 
of stones right across the valley, and lay down waiting for their 
prey behind them. The caravan approached at first unsus- 
pectingly, but either the bandits fired too soon, or were descried 
from the top of the rocks ; for the ambuscade failed, a 
desperate conflict ensued, and the honest men got the upper 



144 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

hand. The piles of stones still exist, and the Nugb even now 
bears an ill reputation ; so that when we halted at the coming 
on of total darkness, our guides grumbled exceedingly because 
we insisted on treating ourselves to a cup of tea. They feared 
that our little fire might draw down upon us the attentions of 
heaven knows how many cut-throats. However, such was 
not the case. The valley remained as silent and peaceable as 
when we entered it. Not a single gun gave forth its enlivening 
flash. The stars rising in lustrous splendor over the path we 
had quitted seemed the only objects in motion ; and we were 
suffered to sip our Congo and smoke our gebeli in quiet. A 
sound sleep prepared us for the exertions of the succeeding 
day, and an hour and a half after midnight the signal was given 
to march. A small plain and another descent occupied us 
until near sunrise, when the fresh breeze that blew upon our 
cheeks seemed to bear the fragrance of vegetation with it. We 
were soon, indeed, among the copses of Om Eayme, consisting 
of huge clumps of bushes growing out of piles of sand, and 
extending it appeared for several miles to our lefl. Here we 
stopped and made a cup of coffee, our guides, indefatigable in 
raising false alarms, declaring it dangerous to proceed except 
by the light of day. This time we suspected them of a desire 
to browse their camels. The sun, however, soon showed itself 
over the great range of hills in our rear, and then came the 
order to march, and then a rapid ride over a little billowy 
ridge, and then our first sight of the mountain which frowns 
over the entrance of the Oasis. 

To our right the customary limestone hills, with all their 
variety of form, swept round in a semicircle, thrusting out in 
front of us a long point, at the extremity of which, rising like 



MEETING A CARAVAN. 145 

the body of a great cathedral, was the long-expected Om-el- 
Yus. Appearing fronn behind this on the horizon, above the 
edge of the plain, and stretching far away towards the left, like 
a distant snowy range, was the dazzlingly white sandy desert, 
which has rolled its swelling waves to the confines of the Oasis, 
but paused there, leaving that fertile spot of earth between it 
and the foot of the great hilly, or rather mountainous, tract 
which from thence extends to the sea. 

Though accustomed to the illusions of the desert, we had 
no idea, on first beholding the gigantic form of Om-el-Yus, of 
the distance that yet remained for us to traverse ; on we went, 
hour after hour, determined not again to halt except within the 
limits of the Oasis. We had perhaps never before experienced 
so great a degree of heat, and certainly this day's work 
promised to be the most fatiguing we had as yet gone through. 
Whilst toiling along over the plain that seemed to lengthen as 
we advanced, a number of objects appeared in the distance 
emerging from the mirage. After some hesitation they were 
pronounced by our Bedawins to be a caravan. There was the 
usual uncertainty and anxiety expressed, it being no extra- 
ordinary thing for members of adverse tribes to meet on the 
road to a common market like Siwah and come to blows, the 
strono- endeavoring to plunder the weak. Our approach, 
however, seemed also to alarm the strangers ; they too paused, 
but at length slowly drew near and dispatched four unarmed 
men to meet us. Our Siwahi companion, on this, gave up his 
gun and went forward. Amicable relations were soon es- 
tablished. There were seventy or eighty camels, and some 
thirty people of the Oasis on their way to Alexandria with 
dates. Those that came up saluted us politely, and sent us 



146 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

some of their fruit. Had we been more distant from our 
destination we might have sought some further communication 
with them, but as it was we were too anxious to arrive. 

We at last rounded the corner of the huge rock, that rose 
sheer from the level plain, and turning to the west, gained an 
extensive view down the long- wished for valley, which seemed 
to descend in a regular gentle slope, from where we stood, 
bounded on the north by the lofty red and white limestone 
range, on the south by the shining undulations of the desert. 
On the edge of the latter, at some distance ahead, stood a soli- 
tary mountain, with five conspicuous peaks, near which we 
soon distinguished three small conical hills, rising in a line at 
equal intervals above a grove of palm trees. Farther to the 
west, as we afterwards found, but appearing at first on the 
same plane^ several huge detached square rocks broke the 
horizon. 

The rough ground on which we now entered bore a great 
resemblance to a ploughed field ; but was soon discovered to 
consist almost entirely of hard earth mixed with salt. To our 
left stretched an immense reedy expanse, terminating in a salt 
lake, beaming brightly in the sun, and with banks covered by 
a dazzlingly white efflorescence. This lake stretched a great 
way ahead, and seemed to divide a small patch of cultivation 
at the entrance of the Oasis from the central tract, which we 
could see beyond, crowded with palm-groves. We had not 
been long within the valley ere we beheld a tall black running 
across the fields to greet us. He pressed our hands, and in a 
simple and affectionate manner welcomed us to his country. 
Farther on, two or three other dark skins met us with a drove 
of diminutive donkeys, and instantly offered to be of any assist- 



ANOTHER CARAVAN. 147 

ance in their power. Our poor asses seemed highly delighted 
at the society of their kindred, and after a journey of between 
three and four hundred miles attempted with astonishing vigor 
to gambol with their new friends. Wiser than they, however, 
we knew that a bellyful of water would do them more good 
than an exchange of mute civilities. Our supply was not 
quite exhausted when we reached the Oasis; but just then the 
camel that carried it took it into his head to bolt, which it 
accordingly did with awkward agility, until it succeeded in 
casting loose the skins, and spilling their scanty contents on 
the ground. We accordingly proceeded under the guidance 
of one of these obliging blacks to a spring not far from the 
edge of the salt lake. Here, in the midst of a pool filled with 
reeds and rushes, bubbled up some tolerably sweet water, of 
which we and our animals drank an ample supply. 

Old Yunus now gave us another sample of his disobedience, 
by refusing to bring the camels to the neighborhood of the 
spring, alleging as a reason the swarms of musquitoes that 
buzzed about it. We overtook him at no great distance, and 
halted under the shade of a palm clump at half past one, 
having been for twelve hours nearly uninterruptedly in motion. 
The latter part of the day had been exceedingly warm, as the 
calmness of the atmosphere was only disturbed by occasional 
hot blasts of wind from the southwest after we entered the 
valley. 

As we reclined under the scanty protection of the palm- 
clump, another caravan of Siwahis passed in the distance. 
Three or four of the men came to join our party, and one, who 
appeared to be the only smoker, enjoyed a pipe for a few min- 
utes. Up to this time there was nothing to forewarn us of the 



148 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

reception we were to meet with. All these people were civil 
and respectful ; and when we reflected on their manner and 
on our excellent treatment at Garah, we somewhat precipi- 
tately bestowed on this beautiful place the title of " The Happy- 
Valley." We gazed around with infinite pleasure on the 
scenes which opened on every side. Rugged hills in one 
direction, undulating deserts in another ; here green and fertile 
plains ; there salt lakes sparkling like fields of half-thawed 
snow. All these things seemed floating in pictorial minuteness 
before us — so clear was the atmosphere, so vivid the light that 
fell in shining streams on every object around. The beauty 
of southern scenery, its peculiar characteristic, consists chiefly 
in the sharpness of its outlines. Perhaps the misty, indefinite 
background of an European landscape — the mingling of earth 
with sky, the blending of distant colors, the haze that envelops 
far oft' mountains, the clouds that lower on the horizon or roll 
athwart the heavens, present more materials for a painter ; 
but I doubt whether the eye can receive keener pleasure than 
from the sight of a country like that in which we were arrived, 
where nothing seemed to exist that could intercept the fierce 
embraces of the sun. 

An hour's ride in the evening through salt-marshes, fields, 
and groves, brought us to another spring, near which we deter- 
mined to pass the night. It was on the westerly border of a 
great palm-grove, round the north of which we had come, mak- 
ing a long circuit to avoid the salt-marshes. When we halted 
it was already twilight, and we could see nothing around us but 
a small hamlet, a little plain, dense woods on every hand, and 
to the south, boldly pencilled against the sky, the village of 
Gharmy on its lofty rock. For my part I was glad enough of 



VISITED BY THE SHEIKHS. 149 

a stoppage, as I began to feel burning thirst and other symp- 
toms of approaching illness. We pitched our tent on a little 
hillock, and were soon snug enough, in spite of the wind that 
arose on the coming on of darkness. During all the time we 
were at Siwah, and at its little dependency Garah, we noticed 
that no sooner had night set in than there was a rush of cool air 
from some direction, generally from a northerly one, into the 
valley. 

The people continued tolerably civil, and the inhabitants of 
a neighboring village brought us some enormous onions, deli- 
cious yellow dates, and a few pomegranates, with a small kind 
of cake, as a present. Whilst we sipped our tea, and congra- 
tulated one another on our safe arrival, they sat outside, partly 
conversing with us, partly among themselves, and evidently 
much puzzled by our arrival. Few of them had ever seen a 
Frank before, whilst some said they remembered two or three 
having been there about the time of Hassan Bey Shamashurghi 
in 1819. These must have been the Baron Minutoli, Linant 
Bey, M. Drovetti, and Colonel Boutin, who all visited the 
Oasis on the occasion of its conquest by the above-mentioned 
general, trusting to the security which was likely to follow a 
recent invasion. Since that time no European had ever visited 
this secluded spot. 

Our speculations on these subjects were interrupted by the 
clatter of horses' and donkeys' hoofs, and we were soon sur- 
rounded by a crowd of Sheikhs and great people from Siwah- 
el-Kebir itself. Graybeards and white burnooses came crowd- 
ing pell-mell through the darkness, and a pyramid of inquisitive 
faces was soon piled up at the doorway of our tent, in the full 
glare of the lantern. If they thought us as queer-looking as 



W& ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

they themselves certainly were, I excuse them for the looks 
of piggish astonishment which they interchanged as they squat- 
ted down for some time, jabbering together like monkeys in their 
outlandish jargon. It was somewhat doubtful whether the visit 
was intended for Sheikh Yunus or for ourselves. The former 
was honored with the first attentions of these important person- 
ages, who catechised him closely on his motives in bringing us 
thither, and seemed not at all satisfied with his explanations. 
It soon appeared very plainly that we were by no means wel- 
come. They cast upon us the eye of suspicion, and wrapped 
themselves up in the mantle of distrust. Without being uncha- 
ritable, we may suppose they wished us any where but in their 
territory ; and if I may judge by their faces, it was not for 
lack of silent invocations that our eyes were not trodden out, 
and that our beards remained undefiled. However, though 
manifestly perplexed and uneasy, they seemed inclined at first 
to make the best of a bad bargain ; and one of them, who 
seemed to be exercising an admitted rigor or to discharge a 
special duty, drew near and questioned us with constrained po- 
liteness, but pretty closely, and delivered our answers to the ill- 
looking mob outside. They were evidently quite surprised at 
the familiarity with which we spoke of the positions of various 
spots in the Oasis, especially the ruins ; and seeing that we 
occasionally referred to a book, asked if all these things were 
down in a register. Not being able to comprehend our real 
object, they seemed floating between two suppositions : one, that 
we were treasure-seekers — the other, that we came to prepare 
a new, perhaps heavier, system of taxation. In neither charac- 
ter were we likely to be regarded with great good- will. After 
some conversation, they asked us for our passport, which being 



ETHNOLOGICAL IDEAS OF THE SHEIKHS. 151 

in due form, gave them something to think about. Still, on 
leaving us that evening, they had clearly not quite made up their 
minds as to how they should act. The firman enjoined one 
thing, but their bigotry and suspicion counselled another. Our 
safety, then, depended on the result of a conflict between fear 
and malice in the minds of a set of fanatical barbarians, almost 
deprived of intercourse with the rest of the world, who believe 
Christians to be the vilest of God's creatures, and whose ethno- 
logical ideas represent us English as a degraded race without a 
home, wandering about the ocean in ships — the French, as a 
people of blacks, dwelling, like Troglodytes, on a great moun- 
tain, in caves and holes in the rocks ! Most of their ideas of 
the Nasara are derived from the antiquities of their own Oasis, 
which is full of small catacombs, looked upon bv them as the 
abodes of the beastly nation that preceded them. 



152 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 



CHAPTER XL 

Push on to the Capital, Siwah-el-Kebir — Pass the Mountain of the Dead — 
Description of the City of Salt — The Siwah Rabble collects — How we 
were stared at — Gloomy bigotry of the people — Their Appearance and 
Costume — An Egyptian Trader — Visit to the Catacombs in the Moun- 
tain of the Dead — View from its Summit — Scenery of the Oasis — 
Available Land of the Oasis — The grand Divan of Siwah — Delibera- 
tions concerning us — We are refused admission to the inner town, on ac- 
count of its being the common Harim — General ill-treatment — A polite 
Sheikh. 

I WAS not well the next morning ; and indeed during my whole 
stay in the Oasis suffered from a slight dysentery, which did 
not, however, prevent me from moving about and exploring, 
though I in part attribute to it some of the incompleteness of 
my researches. We left our ground at half past eight o'clock', 
and made for the nearest of the three conical hills I have before 
mentioned. This proved to be Gebel-el-Mouta, or the Mountain 
of the Dead, which, as we approached, appeared to be perfectly 
honeycombed with catacombs. Their entrances were arranged 
in lines along the face of the hill, looking like the windows of 
a ruined building. 1 have scarcely ever seen so curious a sight 
as this huge rock hewn into a sepulchre. There was once a 



SIWAH-EL-KEBIR. 153 

proposal to build a pyramid near London full of passages and 
recesses to receive the thousand a week that go to their last ac- 
count. Here was the idea in some sort realized. From top to 
bottom, on every side, were the chambers of the dead perforated 
in the imposing mass before us ; and as I afterwards found, the 
excavations have been carried towards the centre and even 
through and through. 

Leaving this interesting object to our right we pressed on 
towards the great salt-meadow intersected with brooks, that 
stretches to the north of the town, and serves as a halting- 
ground for the caravans that arrive from the desert. A great 
number of camels and Bedawins now occupied it : but passing 
these, we arrived at once to Siwah-el-Kebir itself; and having 
crossed a ditch or stream, encamped in an irregular triangle on 
the northeast side, formed by an inclosed palm-grove at our 
backs ; a wall, through a break in which we had passed, on our 
right ; and another wall in front, over which the huge form of 
the town or castle, with its innumerable loop-holes or windows, 
reared itself. Near the left angle of this open space were 
some houses forming a kind of suburb. 

Siwah-el-Kebir, or Siwah the Great, as the capital of the 
Oasis is called, constitutes a most remarkable object in itself; 
but it is difficult to present an idea of it by words. From our 
tent it wore the appearance of an immense castellated building 
or citadel, with very lofty perpendicular walls flanked by but- 
tresses or towers ; and with houses appearing over the battle- 
ments rising tier above tier to a point where a cluster of one or 
two small buildings crowns the whole, and may be thought to 
resemble a watchtovver or keep. A great number of dwelling- 
places are clustered round the base and spread on all sides ; 
7* 



154 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

but these are only looked upon as suburbs. The construction 
of the town is peculiar ; but though the objects of defence are 
well answered they do not appear to have been chiefly consid- 
ered in the plan, which flowed from the singular character and 
manners of its inhabitants. The site originally chosen was the 
summit and sides of one of two pointed hills, or rather masses 
of rock, that rose direct out of the level plain. This hill seems 
to have been first covered with a mass of closely-packed houses, 
with narrow streets or lanes between. As the population in- 
creased, the irregular octagon was not spread far and wide 
around, but began to ascend aloft into the air — house upon 
house, street upon street, quarter upon quarter, until it became 
a bee-hive and not a town. The Siwahi architects appear not 
to have seen that light was good : how a single ray can pene- 
trate into any of the inner buildings it is difficult to understand. 
The outer ones have little square windows disposed triangu- 
larly. In most parts of the place the streets are covered over, 
as at Garah, and of course pitch-dark even by day, so that any 
one who is about to enter, as naturally takes his lantern as if 
he were sallying forth after gun-fire in an Egyptian city. It 
was amusing to see our Bedawins thus providing themselves in 
the midst of some of the most brilliant days I have ever wit- 
nessed. On what system the passages of communication are 
arranged I cannot tell, as we were not permitted to ascertain : 
all I know from my own observation is, that house is leaned 
against house, and story raised above story, round the central 
rock, to a great elevation, and that the backs of the outer build- 
ings, regularly corresponding, form a vast wall encompassing 
the city, of the height of more than a hundred feet. Several 
houses have been begun outside and carried up to diff"erent 



MODE OF BUILDING — DOMESTIC RELATIONS. 155 

points ; these produce the effect of flanking towers ; and, with 
the nine entrances resembling very small postern-gates, ascended 
to by steps, help to give to Siwah the appearance of a fortified 
place, which indeed it may, to a certain extent, be considered. 
Near the northern extremity is the chimney-like minaret of a 
mosque, from which the Muezzin at stated hours, not exactly 
those prescribed in the Muslim ritual, pokes out his head, like 
a London sweep, and calls the faithful to prayers. The wall is 
not quite regular, being in some places much lower than in 
others. There are open spaces in the town ; and in one of 
them the Divan is held ; but the greater part appears to be a 
mass of closely-packed houses, divided by corridors that proba- 
bly wind spirally round the central rock. 

The cause of this singular mode of building was, that when 
the son of a family married, his father, according to immemo- 
rial custom, built him a house, not in the suburbs or by the side 
of his own, but on the top ; every succeeding generation did 
the same, as though this barbarian people had determined to 
imitate the Tower of Babel and climb the skies. They stopped 
short, however, within reasonable limits ; the great-grandson 
of a defunct constructive genius perhaps deeming it safer to 
occupy the lower rooms left vacant by his forefathers than to 
be thrust aloft into the air to the dizzy height which some have 
attained, and so the accumulative process at length ceased, 
after having carried the pinnacles of the place to a vast height. 
It is probable that successive generations push one another up 
and down as the stories become vacant, so that whilst in one 
pile of buildings the chief of a long line is at the bottom, in 
another he is at the top ! 

You must know, moreover, that not among the Spartans 



IbG ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

was marriage held in higher honor than among the people of 
Siwah. Neither bachelor nor widower is allowed to dwell 
permanently within the walls or to remain on a visit after sun- 
set. As soon as the young men reach a certain age, they are 
driven forth to build themselves dwellings in the suburbs ; and 
when a wife dies, sentence of expulsion is forthwith passed on 
her disconsolate partner ; for this reason it is that on every side 
numerous houses exist, but especially towards the north, where 
there is a regular quarter round the base of the second conical 
hill. The shape of this hill is curious ; it is filled with exca- 
vations and catacombs, and rises in strata of diminishing extent 
until, at the top, a huge mass of stone appears, to a fanciful 
eye, in the form of a lion couchant. 

I have already hinted that Siwah is built of fossil salt, or 
rather earth in which salt is mixed in great proportions, some- 
times more than half, and this circumstance, curious in itself, 
becomes the more so from the fact that, as long ago as the age 
of Herodotus, the people of these regions built their dwellings 
of the same material, and that the Father of History, for re- 
cording this among other incredible facts, gained the name of 
the Father of Lies.* It was extremely interesting to us to de- 
tach portions from the walls that rose on every side, and to see, 
on breaking them, the pure salt white and sparkling within, 
whilst without, of course, dust and dirt and heat had imparted 
a grayish hue. I imagine that, as at Garah, rafters of the 
palm-tree enter plentifully into the construction of the whole 
pile. 



* Pliny (v. 5) mentions an oasis in which the people built their house 
of salt. 



SIWAHI RABBLE. 157 

While we sat under the shade of the garden wall smoking 
our pipes and leisurely contemplating the scene that presented 
itself, we became the objects of the unintelligent curiosity of 
the bees or rather drones of the hive before us. Up they came, 
strutting with that air of monstrous arrogance which no one 
who is unsteeped in the treble darkness of Muslim pride can 
assume, to gaze at the new comers. There was no salute, no 
expression of welcome ; we had got into an atmosphere of in- 
tense bigotry. During our morning's ride we had already felt 
the change. No hands were extended to press ours, no peace 
was invoked upon our heads ; every face on the road was 
averted, every eye scowled in hatred, every lip curled in scorn. 
The curses, however, that were no doubt heaped upon us as we 
passed were expressed in their own frightful jargon, and did 
not therefore offend our ears except by the unmusical succes- 
sion of sounds. 

Well, as I have said, the Siwahi rabble collected around 
us, and we were soon the objects of an universal stare. Had 
they laughed at our appearance, I should have forgiven them ; 
four such guys as we were had never before surely entered 
their territories. One sported a nightcap surmounted by an old 
gray hat much the worse for wear, and a brown-holland suit, 
which at starting scarce contained his portly form, but now 
hung loose about it ; another had decked himself out in a tar- 
boosh and an indescribable summer coat ; the brows of a third 
were surmounted by a huge turban, and he was wrapped in a 
flannel jacket, in which, according to the necessities of the jour- 
ney, he had slashed innumerable extempore pockets ; whilst 
your humble servant was overshadowed by an enormous trun- 
cated cone formed by a beaver hat with a brim six inches 



158 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

broad, and a white linen covering stretched tight over from the 
crown to the outer edge. True that there was some attempt at 
respectability, in the shape of clean shirts and trousers, but 
these could not conceal the fact that we had been knocking 
about for nearly three weeks in the desert, generally sub d/vo, 
and always too fatigued at our halts to pay much attention to 
the toilet ; as to shaving, nobody ever thought of such a thing ; 
our faces, too, were burned black with the sun, and several 
noses were regularly skinned. 

But the Siwahis — " May misfortune come to them !" — did 
not see the comical side of the question. We were Christians, 
infidels, dogs, had made our appearance under suspicious cir- 
cumstances, and claimed the protection of a hated authority. 
Nothing therefore but a vague fear of consequences prevented 
them from stoning us to death on the spot. I am persuaded 
that our arrival had been the theme of conversation all night, 
and that the most fanatical of this fanatical brood had been 
holding forth on the necessity of giving us a warm reception, 
whilst the more liberal and timid had counselled our being 
treated with silent contempt. Be this as it may, they came in 
sullen silence to gaze at us, and generally went away with 
looks of gloomy hatred ; even the boys eyed us over with the 
gravity of men, and we made the remarkable observation that 
neither on this occasion nor on any other did a single smile 
illumine their sombre features. 

Most of the rabble before us were men of middle size and 
slender make, with sallow complexions and small unmeaning 
features. As at Garah there were some of a half-negro cast of 
countenance, besides a number of real blacks, who by the way 
were often good-humored, and deigned sometimes to distend 



CATACOMBS OF GEBEL MOTJTA. 159 

their mouths with a grin and show us their white teeth. These 
are for the most part slaves employed as household servants. 
Of course not a single woman mingled with the crowd. The 
usual dress was a white or brown shirt descending nearly to 
the ankles and furnished with long loose sleeves, and a white 
takiah or linen skull-cap. Very few wore the more expensive 
tarboosh, but some had a litham or scarf of checked blue and 
white cotton cloth thrown over the head with one end depend- 
ing in front, whilst the other was wrapped round the chin, 
hiding part of the mouth and cast back over the left shoulder . 
this head-dress is rather becoming and graceful, and has long 
prevailed among certain nations of Northern Africa. Leo 
explains the custom by saying that the mouth, as the aperture 
that received food, was a part that propriety forbade to be left 
uncovered. 

Whilst we were interchanging stares with our uncivil hosts, 
a turbaned man came up in a blue shirt, and we at once re- 
cognized the Egyptian. He proved to be an Arab merchant 
from the Said or Upper Egypt, engaged in the grain trade. 
We learned that he crossed the desert once every season with 
a supply of wheat, rice, and beans, which he disposed of in 
small parcels, as the arrival of the Bedawins to buy dates 
brought a few dollars into the hands of the Siwahis. He 

o 

smoked a pipe with us and seemed inclined to be useful in 
giving information, though somewhat in awe of his customers. 

I walked this morning to Gebel Mouta to amuse myself by 
exploring the catacombs. A man who observed me taking 
this direction shouted to me to come back, but I affected not to 
hear and pursued my way ; he was occupied with a drove of 
donkeys and did not follow me. There was nothing particular 



160 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

in any of the excavations to reward my search. The largest 
was about sixty feet in depth, and composed of several vaulted 
chambers, with a choked-up well and some side rooms and 
passages lighted by long loopholes from the main apartments. 
Bones and even human hair were scattered about, but there were 
no hieroglyphics or paintings except a few ornamental scrolls in 
blue and red. The curiosity of the hill consists in the extra- 
ordinary number of these receptacles of the dead crowded into 
so small a space. The greater part of the substance of the 
mountain seemed to have been hewn away. T cannot under- 
stand how Browne, who was so many days in the Oasis, could 
have written that this hill contains only about thirty catacombs, 
when the most cursory glance from any point of view reveals 
an immense number of entrances : his mistake as to the gen- 
eral dimensions is more easily accounted for, as he may have 
grown weary of examining chamber after chamber. 

I ascended with some difficulty to the top, which is nearly 
pointed, and obtained a splendid view of the whole Oasis. 
Magnificent palm groves waved their feathery summits at my 
feet for an extent of several miles. Beyond these, to the east 
and west, were the snowy salt-marshes and the shining lakes ; 
whilst in the latter direction the great square form of Edrar 
Amelal, or the White Mountain, with the conical hills of 
Kamyseh and Amoudein, closed up the valley. Southward, 
as far as the eye could reach, were waves of sand that some- 
times rose into hills ; and to the south-east the five-peaked 
mountain I have before mentioned reared its solitary form. I 
strained my eyes in the direction of Om Beydah, or the Temple 
of Jupiter Ammon, which I knew lay near the foot of a pic- 
turesque village on a hill that towered over the palm-trees due 



SCENERY OF THE OASIS. 161 

east, but could not discover what I sought. Near at hand the 
town of Siwah, and a little farther on the companion rocks of 
Sid Hamet, formed bold features in the scene ; and to the 
north the long unbroken range of red limestone hills bounded 
the view. Om el Yus could also of course be seen, like a 
giant watching over the entrance of the valley. 

It is difficult to convey an idea of the pleasure I experienced 
in viewing the prospect that developed itself on all sides around 
me. It could scarcely have possessed more elements of the 
beautiful. The verdure, the lakes, and the arid hills may be 
found elsewhere, and be deemed to afford contrasts sufficiently 
striking ; but perhaps here alone are added in such close jux- 
taposition the glittering desert and the snowy fields of salt, 
looking like vast glaciers just beginning to melt beneath that 
sultry clime. 

In addition to this view, which may be obtained with little 
variety from almost any of the hills I have mentioned, many 
details of the scenery of the Oasis are extremely pleasing. I 
never wish to enjoy prettier walks than some of those we took 
during our stay. The.re is generally a garden wall or a fence 
on either hand of the lanes, with pomegranate-trees bursting 
over it in redundant luxuriance, and hanging their rich tempt- 
ing purple fruit within reach of the hand, or the deep-green 
fig-tree, or the apricot, or the huge ragged leaf of the banana, 
or the olive, or the vine. The spaces between these are not 
left idle, being carpeted with a copious growth of bersim and 
lucerne that loads the air with its fragrance, and is often check- 
ered with spots of a green light that steals in through the 
branchy canopy above. Sometimes a tiny brook shoots its 
fleet waters along by the wayside, or lapses slowly with eddy- 



162 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

ing surface, rustling gently between grassy banks or babbling 
over a pebbly bed. Here and there a huge bridge of palni- 
trunks is thrown across, but the glassy current frequently 
glides at will athwart the road. At one place there is a mea- 
dow ; at another, a copse ; but on all sides the date-trees fling 
up their columnar forms and wave aloft their leafy capitals. 
Occasionally a huge blue crane sails by on flagging wing to 
alight on the margin of some neighboring pool : the hawk or 
the falcon soars or wheels far up in the air ; the dove sinks 
fluttering on the bough ; the quail starts up with its short, 
strong, whirring flight ; and sparrows, with numerous other 
small predatory birds, go sweeping across the fields. Some- 
times you may observe the hard-working black turning up huge 
clods with his mattock ; asses are driven past laden with dried 
" ao-houl :" files of camels move alon^ in the distance on the 

7 o 

borders of the desert. From some points the castellated capi- 
tal is descried down a long vista, or the village of Gharmy rises 
aloft on its inaccessible rock, or the majestic fragment of the 
sanctuary of Ammon, which has so bravely stood the brunt of 
ages, may be seen still standing erect in the midst of its silent 
glade. 

The available land in the Oasis consists of a piece of ground 
about five miles long and three or four broad, situated in the 
centre of a long valley, that extends for sixteen or seventeen 
miles, nearly in an east and west direction from Om el Yus to 
Edrar Ameial ; and of some small dependencies or colonies, 
one at the eastern entrance called Zeitun, others, as Kamyseh 
and Beled-er-Rum, or the City of the Greeks, lying in a cluster 
at the extreme west. It must always be kept in mind that the 
central and principal division is nearly insulated by great salt- 



REFUSED ADMISSION TO THE INNER TOWN. 163 

lakes and marshes, which in some places intermingle with and 
penetrate the patches of fertile ground, so that it is difficult to 
say where one ends and the other begins. Many of the springs 
of the Oasis are quite salt, whilst others may be called sweet. 
The latter rise by the side of the former and flow in the same 
direction; so that, for example, of two brooks that intersect the 
encamping ground north of the city, one is potable and one 
quite briny. 

On returning to the tent I found that our relations with the 
people of Siwah had undergone no amelioration, indeed rather 
the contrary. From what we could learn, they were in a state 
of great excitement about us; and the Sheikhs, in divan assem- 
bled, were deliberating on the course of conduct they were to 
pursue. Through the medium of Sheikh Yunus we had made 
a formal demand of assistance from these people in the shape of 
a s-upply of donkeys to carry us about on our excursions, whilst 
our own weary and jaded beasts were allowed to rest. The 
first communication we received in reply was a demand for 
our firman, which we sent in. It was evident that " we dare 
not," waited upon " we would" in the minds of these people, 
and that fear alone prevented them from at once ordering us 
off. According to the accounts we received there was a stormy 
debate in the divan. Some were for disregarding the passport 
altogether, and refusing us all aid and assistance ; others voted 
that we should be granted part of what we demanded. On one 
point, however, all seemed unanimous — we were not to be al- 
lowed to enter the city. 

Of course, had the people of Siwah been perfectly agreea- 
ble, we should have indulged ourselves with a walk through 
the streets of their queer-looking abode ; but as the wish to see 



164 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

it had had no influence in inducing us to undertake the journey, 
and as we had already inspected a village — on a smaller scale 
it is true, but similar in construction — we were not sorry that 
the wiseacres of the place chose to exhibit obstinacy on this 
point rather than on any other. What we feared was that 
they would throw in our way the same obstacles as in that of 
former travellers who wished to see the temple of Jupiter Am- 
mon. We were none of us antiquarians, it must be confessed, 
and had rather made this ruin an excuse than an object of our 
journey ; but to have been turned back without being permitted 
to behold it would have been exceedingly mortifying. I think 
we took the best way to compass our ends by assuming com- 
parative indifference on this score, and affecting to insist on ad- 
mission to the town. We demanded, however, what they were 
resolved not to grant. They looked upon the place as one vast 
harim. People of their own nation, as I have said, if unmar- 
ried, are jealously excluded at night, so are strangers of every 
description ; and we were told that the streets were full of 
v/omen employed in carrying water, grinding corn, or perform- 
ing other offices connected with their domestic affairs. Had 
this statement been made to us at first, we should perhaps have 
thought it proper at once to acquiesce in their decision. At any 
rate we should not have felt angry with them. It was the inso- 
lence of the rabble, and the tergiversation and uncertain con- 
duct of the Sheikhs, combined with their incivility in refusing to 
come out and hold a conference with us, since they would not 
permit us to come in to them, that raised our indignation. 

The decision of the Sheikhs was finally communicated, and 
it was this : that we should be supplied with donkeys and 
guides, and allowed to visit any part of the Oasis, but not per- 



A WELCOME VISITOR. 165 

mitted to enter the gates of the city. Punctuality and faithful- 
ness in carrying out this compromise would have left us no 
cause to complain ; but during our whole residence we were 
subject to a variety of little annoyances which I may as well 
mention here, but which went on increasing in proportion as 
the bigoted party gained the ascendency. In the first place, 
the children cursed us at a distance, and now and then sent a 
stone in our direction ; the demeanor of the people was osten- 
tatiously uncivil ; and if we took a walk in the neighborhood 
of the gates, we were surrounded by a mob that kept talking 
at, not to us, and tried to excite one the other to drive the 
Nasara back to their tent. If a single one among them had 
plucked up courage to strike a blow, I have no doubt it would 
have been the signal for a massacre. On one occasion the 
fanatics dispatched us an order, which we of course disregarded, 
not to stir from our encamping-ground ; and when, annoyed 
by their ill treatment, we announced our intention of entering 
the town in spite of them, they collected armed with guns and 
spears, and loud threats to put us to death if we attempted it. 
We were not sorry that they expressed their feelings in this 
explicit manner, as we should not have felt justified in comply- 
ing with their prejudices unless there was a certainty that we 
should otherwise incur a risk disproportionate to the object to 
be attained. 

Our endeavors to procure provisions were almost always 
unsuccessful, and we should have very probably been starved 
out had we not had our own supply to fall back upon. One of 
the few civil Siwahi sent us, it is true, a bowl of rice cooked 
with oil and flavored with red pepper, and there was a constant 
influx of pomegranates and dates. I remember also that we 



166 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

procured, during our stay, two doves, eleven eggs, and a basin 
of oil, with some unroasted coffee ; but our desire to buy a 
sheep was frustrated by their refusal to take the Pasha's money. 
Every transaction was accompanied with impediments of some 
description, and it required the greatest patience and firmness 
to bring any thing to a satisfactory conclusion. 

After the resolve of the high and mighty Sheikhs of Siwah 
had been communicated to us, we were waiting patiently for 
the means of beginning our researches when a visitor was 
announced. We received him among our carpet-bags and 
baggage piled at the back of the tent. He was a broad- faced 
pale man, with a good-humored expression; wore a tarboosh, 
a white burnoose, and sported a small blunderbuss. Apparently 
he was an ambitious character : at any rate, however, he was 
a polite one, for he sat down and made a speech full of elegant 
compliments, divided into firstly, secondly, thirdly, and lastly, 
and containing the reasons why he disapproved of the inhospi- 
table manner in which the Sheikhs seemed inclined to treat us. 
It turned out that he himself was only an ex-Sheikh, having 
abdicated, not like Sylla because he was satiated with glory, 
but, like other great men, because he could not help it. It 
appears that he had received an appointment from the Pasha 
of Egypt as one of the head men of the place, and had once 
possessed a firman to that effect ; but the other Sheikhs had 
refused to acknowledge him, pushing their audacity so far as 
to tear up the parchment. He was biding his time, and mean- 
while reigned supreme in a little suburb. We certainly met 
with no other really polite man in this outlandish place, and 
his civility continued unabated to the end. Most of the presents 
we received came from him. The donkeys we did at last pro- 



A POLITE SHEIKH. 16T 

cure were his. Among his other attentions he ordered a black 
fellow, not a negro however, who it was said bore the office of 
showish or policeman of the town, to attend on us during our 
stay, which he did, I suspect this sable gentleman was digni- 
fied with an official title, in order, if possible, to soothe our 
wounded feelings. 

In spite of the good-will, however, of Sheikh Yusuf, things 
did not go on so smoothly as we could have wished. Towards 
evening, it is true, when it was too late, three donkeys at last 
came ; but as they would not have sufficed, even if they had 
made their appearance in time, for four people, we were not at 
all satisfied, and sent them back rather gruffly. We did not 
know then that these were not official donkeys, but furnished by 
Sheikh Yusuf, who was really ashamed of the inhospitality of 
his countrymen. As is usually the case, the vote of the divan 
in our favor, being carried only by a small majority, was com- 
pletely unattended to when any active assistance was in ques- 
tion. The only service it rendered us was to give us a certain 
freedom of action, and enable us to move about with some se- 
curity. 



168 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 



CHAPTER XIL 

Visit to the Temple of Jupiter Ammon — Description of the Sanctuary — 
Hieroglyphics — Images, &c. — Reflections — The Fountain of the Sun — 
The Palace of the Ancient Kings — Subterranean Passages — See some 
Women — Their Costume — Ride to the Catacombs of Sid Hamet, and 
chmb the Five-peaked Mountain of Edrar Abou Bryk — The Tribe of 
" Ropemakers" — Large Sepulchral Chambers — Civil Arab — Return to 
the encampment — Popular feeling against us — A Burial at Night- 
Ride across the Salt Lakes to the White Mountain and the City of the 
Greeks — Ruins of Temples — Catacombs, &c. — Theological conversa- 
tion — The Tvs^o Columns — Bird's-eye View of the Oasis — Raisins, 
&c. — Return — Further Explorations — The Date Market — Varieties of 
Date. 

On the morning of October the 5th we at length determined no 
longer to allow our visit to the Temple of Jupiter Ammon to be 
deferred, and the whole party was about to start on foot, when 
two donkeys and as many men, one of them the civil showish, 
made their appearance. I and Longshaw mounted them, Lam- 
port and Forty preferring to walk, and we set off. Our guides 
took us into a narrow winding lane, between two low walls, of 
the usual material, namely, earth mixed with salt. These in- 
closed gardens, filled with palm and other fruit trees, and care- 
fully cultivated likewise in the interspaces; presently a lazy 



GHARMY RUINS OF OM BEYDAH. 169 

brook bordered our way, and, farther on, it became a swift 
gurgling streamlet. During our ride we observed no traces of 
hamlets or detached houses, but on emerging from the first 
palm grove came to some broad fields in which a number of 
blacks were at work. It appears that these were the slaves of 
the great men. The instrument they used was of a curious 
shape, the handle being long and straight, and the iron as 
broad as an English spade, brought round so as to form an 
enormous mattock. The laborers threw the clods between 
their legs, so that they had their work before them instead of 
behind. 

After crossing the open fields, in an easterly direction, we 
entered another vast grove, and soon came under the southwest 
side of the village of Gharmy (the Agremieh of Hornemann 
and the Siwah-el-Sharjieh of Minutoli). It is situated on the 
summit of a lofty precipitous rock — the houses hanging over 
and piled up as in Garah. Possibly in the palmy days of the 
Ammonian state it was covered with the fortified palace of the 
ancient kings ; but I cannot bring the detailed account of Dio- 
dorus into any reasonable agreement with the present state of 
the locality. He speaks of a sort of town, surrounded by a 
triple wall, one inclosing the palace, another embracing the 
temple, and a sacred fountain with the habitations of the wo- 
men ; a third containing the military force. Now if the ruins 
of Om Beydah are those of the celebrated temple, and there is 
no good reason for doubting that they are, the second in closure 
alone must have included a very large portion of the most fer- 
tile territory ; and the third, if proportion was at all regarded, 
taken in the whole grove. I am disposed to think it more 
probable that there were three independent inclosures, in which 



170 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

case Gharmy might have been one, the present Siwah a second, 
and the Temenos of the temple a third. However, this is a 
question not perhaps to be settled at present. 

Three or four hundred paces to the south of the village we 
at length observed a dark mass of ruins rising on a slightly 
elevated platform of rock, in the centre of an open glade. We 
knew at once that this was the object of our visit, and leaping 
from our saddles, pressed forward with beating hearts to the 
spot. A few strides over broken fragments of rock and form- 
less ruins placed us beneath the shadow of the vast blocks 
which, probably many thousand years before, had been up- 
raised to form the roof of a sanctuary in which one of the most 
venerable oracles of ancient times was wont to pronounce its 
sententious decisions. 

The remains of the temple may be described in a few words. 
The first object that strikes the eye as you approach is one side 
of a ruined gateway, standing immediately in front of the frag- 
ment of a chamber, which appears much smaller than it is on 
account of the vastness of the blocks that form the roof. 
Around the base of this elevated portion of the ruin are heaped 
up in picturesque confusion huge masses of calcareous stone, 
several fragments of the shafts of columns, and two or three 
capitals of alabaster, whilst the surface of the ground on all 
sides is covered with excavations, pieces of walls, and other 
indications that of yore there must have existed a considerable 
pile of buildings on this spot. 

From the traces still remaining I should judge that the 
temple was inclosed by a wall of immense thickness, nearly 
four hundred feet from north to south, and rather more than 
three hundred feet from east to west. Towards the southeast 



TEMPLE OF JUPITER AMMON. 171 

angle a considerable portion may be easily made out, based on 
the rock and composed of large blocks of stone. Whether 
there was a second or inner inclosure I could not ascertain, 
but am inclined to think that the interior was filled up by a 
variety of chambers and buildings, possibly the residences of 
the priests, as several holes dug by the natives in search of 
treasure admit one to a view of solid foundations of walls and 
small chambers at various points. Probably some idea of the 
plan of the ancient structure might even now be obtained by 
carefully clearing away the accumulated rubbish. 

As J have intimated there was a central apartment or sanc= 
tuary about fifty feet in length and sixteen in width. Of this 
only the northern end still remains. Its construction was pe- 
culiar. The side walls, nearly six feet in thickness, were built 
of comparatively small blocks, whilst the roof consisted of long 
beams of stone, if I may so express myself, twenty-seven feet 
in length, and four in breadth and depth, stretching from side 
to side, and projecting a little beyond the walls, so as to form a 
kind of cornice on the outside. Three of these are still aloft, 
and I counted the fragments of ten more strewed about, which 
enables us to calculate pretty correctly the original length of 
the apartment. Most probably this was the sanctuary of the 
building, the place where the oracles were delivered. If I may 
judge from the ruins of Beled-er-Rum, which seem a modern 
imitation of the original building, I should say that the gate- 
way was united to the body of the sanctuary by thin side walls, 
pierced with windows through which light entered. The per- 
son who wished to consult the oracle most probably penetrated 
no farther than this spot, whilst the priest, stationed at the far- 



172 ADVENTUUES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

ther end of the apartment, in the deep shade of its Druidical 
roof, delivered the mysterious responses of the god. 

A few feet from the north end of the sanctuary is the 
eastern side of a massive stone gateway with perpendicular 
jambs. It is covered with hieroglyphics and figures in a style 
that may be said to partake both of intaglio and rilievo, as also 
are the walls of the chamber itself. In the roof are the repre- 
sentations of eagles or vultures, with outstretched wings, flying 
one behind the other, on a ground interspersed with stars. It 
appears that all these were originally painted blue and red, as 
traces of these colors still remain. There are fifty-five lines or 
rather columns of hieroglyphics on the west side of the chamber, 
and fifty-three on the east. Underneath are processions of 
figures with tables above their heads. 

Among the heap of ruins round the fragment of the gateway, 
many of which are covered with hieroglyphics, is to be found a 
block of stone, having on three sides sculptured representations 
of an ugly personage with ram's horns. I will not decide 
whether or not this was meant for the Krioprosopic Zeus, but 
confess my curiosity was somewhat raised on catching a 
glimpse of the hideous face through the crevices left between 
the enormous fragmental masses beneath which it is buried. 
I experienced some difficulty in getting down to it, but, by 
sitting in a constrained posture, succeeded in making a sketch. 
I endeavored also to copy some of the hieroglyphics, but from 
my want of knowledge and practice could do nothing worth 
while. The important tablets, moreover, are so high-placed 
that they could not be taken except by means of a scaffolding 
or ladder ; neither of which, considering the state of our rela- 



TEMPLE OF JUPITER AMMON. 173 

tions with the people of the Oasis, was to be thought of for a 
moment. I saw a cartouche high up on a portion of the gate- 
way, but, although blessed with pretty good eyesight, could not 
make out the letters with sufficient certainty to copy them. 
As to the figures of gods or kings, or heroes with their various 
emblems which ornamented the whole surface of the walls, 
they can scarcely be explained without the assistance of the 
inscription. It may be worth while to mention that the camel 
occurs as a hieroglpyhical character, as well as a bird resem- 
bling the ostrich. 

My description of the remains of this celebrated temple is 
brief, perhaps unsatisfactory. The truth is, that to say any 
thing very interesting about it would require an amount of 
architectural and antiquarian knowledge which has not fallen 
to my lot. For my part, moreover, I do not pretend to have 
been able to make more than a cursory examination, just suffi- 
cient to convince myself that I was really standing amidst the 
ruins of a temple wherein rites were once performed as ancient 
in origin as those of Dodona, perhaps on the very spot where 
Alexander first heard himself assured of his divine parentage. 
Around me all was ruin and decay. One single fragment only 
of this vast building was uncrushed beneath the heavy foot of 
time. Tablets in an unknown language stared at me unmean- 
ingly from crumbling walls. Figures of almost forgotten 
races — probably of unrecorded dynasties — developed them- 
selves in stately files. I should have liked to come, after 
darkness had descended upon the earth, and the sun's too 
powerful glare no longer revealed all the mournful devastation 
around ; at which time, by the moon's uncertain beams in the 
heavy shade of the palm-woods, that would keep up an inces- 



174 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

sant murmur as of spirits talking in the air, I might have built 
up again in imagination this antique fabric. I might at least 
have allowed my thoughts to wander back to the traditionary- 
period when mystic, perhaps dreadful rites, were performed 
within this now unhallowed fane, when processions of grave 
Hierodouloi moved through its sombre halls and galleries, when 
oracular voices muttered along its ponderous roof, when wealthy 
caravans halted at its gates to acknowledge or to implore pro- 
tection against the dangers of the waterless desert. I might 
have been able to picture to myself the tumult and dismay that 
was created in this tranquil spot of earth by the intelligence 
that in the distant land of Egypt an army of fifty thousand men 
was collecting to destroy their temples and their- idols, and 
smite their priests and their kings with the edge of the sword, 
and carry off their sons and their daughters into captivity. 
Solemn rites were no doubt then performed within these now 
silent walls ; and cries of frantic piety rose amidst those vast 
groves. And when Cambyses' mighty armament was ship- 
wrecked on the sea of sand upon which it had too daringly 
launched, what cries of joy were raised ! what sounding of 
cymbals and beating of drums ! what glances of triumph lit up 
the eyes of aged and timid priests ! how much more gallantly 
did stout young heroes sing the song of defiance and tell admir- 
ing damsels what deeds of valor they would have done in their 
country's cause ! 

But neither these nor any other pictures was I allowed 
leisure to paint. The impatient showish and his companion 
who drove the donkeys were hurrying us away ; and as we 
did not know how long the lull might continue at Siwah, and 
observed a suspicious group of people on the outskirts of the 



FOUNTAIN OF THE SUN. 175 

palm-grove, we thought it best to glance over as much as we 
could without dallying. We accordingly proceeded south along 
the banks of a little winding stream, and plunging into a de- 
lightfully cool grove, soon reached the Fountain of the Sun. 
It is a very deep and remarkably clear pool ; in ancient times 
inclosed with masonry, fragments of which still remain. Tra- 
dition says that the water, which has a slightly bitter taste, is 
hot at midnight and cool at mid-day. We tried its temperature, 
and found it at half past nine o'clock in the morning exactly 
the same as the surrounding atmosphere, namely, only 84°. 
The surface is continually covered with bubbles, which rise 
from the bottom and give the pool the appearance of being in 
an almost continual state of effervescence. The spot is ex- 
ceedingly beautiful ; a little hollow, as it were, in the grove, 
with a translucent and yet disturbed expanse of water, the re- 
mains of the broken fountain strewed upon the brink and half 
concealed by a growth of rushes and reeds twined with wreaths 
of creeping plants — the works of art shattered and moss- 
grown — the spring gay and laughing as ever — reminding one 
of the ruin of the body and the enduring youth of the mind. 
A small stream takes a gentle leap over a diminutive barrier, 
and goes whispering on its way through a shadowy bed towards 
the mouldering temple. We lingered some time at this place, 
now looking at the shred of sky reflected in the busy waters ; 
now at the blue sky itself; now at the fruit-trees that pressed 
in tangled luxuriance around ; and now at the long vistas that 
opened on all hands between the palms, like the aisles of a great 
cathedral. 

The accounts which the ancients give of the Fountain of 
the Sun are remarkably uniform. All describe the variations 
8* 



176 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

of its temperature in nearly the same language ; and I have 
no doubt that their observation was perfectly correct. Ammo- 
nium was for a long period a place comparatively easy of 
access, and travellers were constantly going and returning. On 
questioning the natives of Siwah on the properties of this foun- 
tain, I found it impossible to extract any thing from them ; but 
the Bedawins had heard of its regular change of temperature 
from hot at midnight to cold at mid-day. A stay often minutes 
did not of course enable us to verify the tradition ; but the 
fact of our thermometer remaining unaffected by immersion in 
the water would seem to indicate that it is a hot spring. Pro- 
bably it may be very hot at night and comparatively cool in 
the day. As I have mentioned, the water supplies a little 
stream, which, taking a northerly course and being joined at a 
little distance by another, runs towards the temple, where it is 
lost, being used up in irrigation, or absorbed in a marsh that 
extends to the foot of the remains of the old inclosing wall. 
Herodotus mentions that the water of the fountain was used to 
fertilize the gardens ; but adds that it was only at mid-day, at 
the time of its greatest coolness, that it was allowed to reach 
them. 

We had heard of some other ancient remains in this 
neighborhood ; but though we peered over the fences, made of 
dry reeds, ornamented with a delicate creeper, and asked all 
sorts of questions, we could not discover any traces of them. 
After proceeding down the beautiful shady lane a little farth^a*, 
we returned, and made some ineffectual researches to the west- 
ward. We found nothing but palm-groves and meadows. 

Returning by another path towards the village of Gharmy, 
we searched about among the orchards at its eastern base, and 



SUBTERRANEAN PASSAGES. 177 



discovered the traces of some extensive stone building ; but I 
could not make out any form. A few large blocks remaining 
entire suggested the idea that the outworks of the fortress 
might have extended thus far. We approached as near as we 
could to the entrance of the village, but were warned off. The 
walls seemed to contain several hewn stones of enormous size 
that may have belonged to an ancient Ammonian structure, 
perhaps the palace of the kings. I regretted not being able 
to examine the interior of this village, which most probably 
contains some curious remains. One of the Siwahi informed 
me that in the court of the chief Sheikh's house was an open- 
ing like that of a well, leading to a subterranean passage said 
to communicate with Gebel Mouta. By his account, if such a 
passage really exist, I should say it contains catacombs on 
either hand ; for he compared it to a street, having the houses 
of the Christians on either hand. A different informant told 
me that he had discovered a subterranean passage in one of the 
tombs of Gebel Mouta leading into the bowels of the earth ; 
and that he had gone along it for some distance, but was afraid 
to prosecute the search. We may therefore perhaps take it for 
granted that the existence of these communications is generally 
credited in the Oasis. Another under-ground corridor is re- 
ported to lead from the same village of Gharmy to the ruin at 
Om Beydah. It may be as well to add that I was told of the 
existence of extensive excavations in the hill on which the 
town of Siwah is built. The house on the summit, moreover, 
is said to be supported by the roof of a building something 
similar in character to the great temple itself. It is not at all 
improbable that the remains of an ancient town are concealed 
under the comparatively modern Siwah el Kebtr. 
8* 



178 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESETIT. 

In one of the lanes in this neighborhood we met three wo- 
men, one white and two black ; they unanimously covered 
their ugly faces as we approached with their checked melayas. 
Excepting one other in the neighborhood of Siwah, these were 
the only women we saw during our stay. There was nothing 
particular to distinguish them from the Egyptians ; they had 
nose- rings and armlels twisted of brass wire. 

In the afternoon I again started on an exploring excursion, 
mounted on a lame donkey. My object was to examine the 
two hills that rise in company out of the borders of the desert 
about a mile south of Siwah, and bear the name of Sid Hamet. 
On the way I passed near the forbidden gates of the town, and 
through what may be called the eastern suburb. I had now an 
opportunity of observing the appearance of Siwah from the 
south, and found that it preserved the same character of lofty 
walls covered with irregularly placed " wind-holes." Along 
the base of the rock that impends over it were to be seen the 
openings of numerous catacombs, like those in Gebel-el-Mouta. 

There was nothing remarkable in the hills I had come to 
visit to reward my trouble ; they were steep masses of rock 
with several caves cut in them, used sometimes for dwelling- 
places, as appeared from the marks of fire. My guide told me 
that these were tne houses of the " Ropemakers," who were 
not Siwahis. Perhaps some wandering tribe, that employs it- 
self in this branch of industry as a chief means of livelihood, 
may occasionally take up its abode here, resembling in charac- 
ter that degraded race of people that in Egypt professes at least 
to support itself by making brass rings, and leads a nomadic 
life among the palm-groves in tents. 

From Sid Hamet I proceeded, leaving on my right a small 



EDRAR ABOU BRYK — MELON-TRENCHES. 179 

fortified barrack that formerly contained a garrison of Egyp- 
tian troops, and took an easterly direction along the minglino- 
limits of the desert and the Oasis towards the mountain called 
Edrar Abou Bryk, which rears its five red peaks on the top of 
a great rounded swell covered with white sand blown up from 
the plain below. This mass of stone is so vast and solitary, 
like a cluster of pyramids, that I thought myself almost at its 
feet at starting ; but I was more than an hour working my way 
towards it through the heavy sand. To my left were the dense 
palm- woods with numerous clumps at their outskirts ; to my 
right the undulating and hilly desert rising gradually in the 
distance. Here and there were a few cabins of date branches, 
the refuge at night of the men and boys who watch the melon- 
trenches that occur on all sides. It is a curious sight to see the 
green snake-like stalks and broad leaves of this beneficent 
plant with its gigantic fruit spreading over the parched surface 
of the sand. The trenches are dug in order to reach the 
richer soil below. A similar practice is observable in the 
neighborhood of Alexandria, especially on the road to Aboukir. 
On reaching the foot of the hill I alighted and toiled up on 
foot ; it was a much more fatiguing undertaking than I had at 
first anticipated, and I was more than once compelled to avail 
myself of the assistance of my guide. Just as I reached a 
glen between two of the peaks the sun set behind the White 
Rock at the end of the valley, and bathed in golden light for a 
moment the road to the Oasis of Augila. I beheld the hills 
and the desert, and the fields of salt and the groves, tinged with 
a rosy hue ; and then the fleeting twilight of these latitudes 
rapidly came on and passed and deepened into darkness. I 
was enabled, however, to distinguish at my feet the deep glade 



180 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

of Om Beydah, in the midst of which rise the solemn and de- 
serted ruins of the temple of x-Vmrnon. 

There was barely time for me to penetrate into the two 
catacombs I had come to visit. They were oblong chambers, 
each about twenty feet in length and eight or nine high. The 
roof of one was still supported by two rows of small square 
pillars cut in the rock ; in the others the pillars had been re- 
moved, but the rough capitals still remained attached to the 
roof. In the centre of that which was highest on the side of 
the mountain appeared the choked up mouth of a well, said to 
lead to a lower chamber that had formerly been opened in 
search of treasure. There was nothing in either at all re- 
markable, except their solitary position. Probably some great 
man had been buried there for distinction's sake, as Edrar 
Abou Bryk is the only mountain within the limits of the Oasis 
that does not appear to have been used as a common cemetery. 

On my return I met a young Arab from the West settled 
in the country ; he accosted me very civilly, talked freely, 
and insisted on my accepting one of two large water-melons 
which he was bringing home. It had become very dark, and 
the road, which lay through lanes and groves, took me past a 
small hamlet, the lights of which twinkled through the trees. 
At another, named Minshieh, not far from Siwah, my new ac- 
quaintance left me, after I had refused a very pressing invita- 
tion to enter his dwelling and partake of the evening meal. 

When I reached the tent I found that the excitement among 
the Siwah people was gradually increasing ; it was evident 
that, if we stayed much longer in this inhospitable place, we 
should do so at considerable risk. Our Bedawins had been 
threatened, and our donkey-boys, who ventured to the gates 



A BURIAL AT NIGHT RELIGIOUS BELIEF. 181 

of the town, taken by the throat and insulted as beino- the 
servants of Christians. 

Whilst we were at supper we heard a great commotion in 
the town ; discordant shrieks and yells burst forth, and red 
lights flashed across the windows and glared upwards through 
the few open places that appear to exist within the walls. 
This was almost the only indication of a common life that had 
proceeded from the sombre pile before us. A great part of 
the population was evidently on the move ; and we soon un- 
derstood that a death had taken place, and that a nocturnal 
procession was hurrying the corpse to the grave. During 
nearly the whole night the bowlings and lamentations con- 
tinued, but they gradually subsided into an occasional shrill 
scream, and at length the vast fortress relapsed into complete 
repose. 

Early next morning I again procured a donkey, not lame, 
it is true, but little larger than a dog, and possessed of a curious 
habit of sidling along as if there were a contest between his 
tail and his head which should be first. My object was to 
proceed to the western extremity of the Oasis and visit the ruins 
I had heard of in that direction. They put me this time in 
charge of a black, who was as talkative as the Siwahis are 
taciturn, and who contrived, before long, to turn the conversa- 
tion to religion, and to tell me most good-humoredly that 
Christians and Jews are allowed the enjoyment of wealth in 
this world, but that hell-fire is prepared for them in the next. 
He did not say this by way of denunciation, but stated it as 
a fact with which I must be acquainted. I could not help 
wishing that the task of " dealing damnation round the land" 
should be left to this unenlightened wretch ; and that the wise 



182 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

and the pious of my own country would think it better befitting 
them to widen rather than to contract the sphere of divine 
mercy. My sable theologian, however, did not allow me much 
time for such impertinent reflections, and confidentially ex- 
pressed his willingness to profit by my intimacy with Satan. 
He was in love with a dark-skinned nymph, whose various 
charms he described with all the freedom of unsophisticated 
nature, and begged of me to write him an amulet which should 
constrain her affections. In vain I professed my inability. 
He could not believe I had bartered my soul without a good 
consideration, and evidently thought that nothing short of the 
possession of the powers of incantation and the wand of the 
magician could compensate any mortal for remaining without 
the circle of Islam. 

I can only give an idea of the scene that presented itself 
after passing the cultivated part of the Oasis, by comparing it, 
as I have already done, to a vast plain covered with half- 
thawed snow. The path, or causeway, wound its serpentine 
length along the centre of this, now bordered with purple 
patches, now cut up by streaks of water. Here and there, at 
first, were little islets, with a cluster of tall palms or a few 
clumps. A hut appeared in one or two places, and I saw 
several persons attending to the plantations. As I was riding 
along I heard a shrill voice very far overhead salute me with 
the epithet " Nazarene !" (Christian), and looking up beheld a 
grinning black working his way up the trunk of a tall palm- 
tree, some sixty feet in height. A brief dialogue was inter- 
changed between my guide and him in a tone between a whine 
and a scream, during which I endeavored by digging my knees 
into my donkey's side to get on. The progress we made, how- 



THE WHITE MOUNTAIN. 183 

ever, was very slow ; but at length the great salt-lake or marsh 
spread out unbroken to the feet of the mountains on one hand, 
and to the borders of the desert on the other. The reverbera- 
tion of the sun's rays from its surface was exceedingly disa- 
greeable to the eyes, and I was eager to arrive at the foot of 
Edrar Amelal, or the White Rock, that rises like a fortress, 
square, massive, and frowning, at the extremity of the valley. 
It was true that no shade could be expected, but, at any rate, 
there were patches of verdure promising to afford an agreeable 
contrast to the glaring expanse through which I was forced to 
pick my way. The black showed no inclination to expedite 
the motions of the refractory animal I bestrode; so it perse- 
vered in its peculiar mode of progression — that is to say, ad- 
vancing sideways or with sudden jerks. 

Patience, however, at length had its reward, and I arrived 
at the Rock, which is nearly precipitous on all sides, whilst the 
summit is perfectly level. I could distinguish no way of as- 
cent, but my guide asserted that he once had the curiosity to 
climb aloft. Not far to the west rises the equally isolated coni- 
cal hill of Kamyseh, between which and Amoudein, or the Two 
Columns, there is a narrow pass containing the ruins of a ham- 
let, and a field or two watered by a small stream that flows 
into the salt morass and is lost. The hill of Kamyseh is filled 
with an immense number of catacombs from its base to its sum- 
mit. I visited several, but all were small, and, though neatly 
cut, contained nothino- of interest. Numerous large caves are 
to be found in the base. 

Beyond these rocks the valley again opened ; and to the 
left, just on the edge of the white sand, which here rose like a 
bank, covered at intervals with thickets of bushes resembling 



184 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

the hazel, appeared a large and dense wood of trees, principally 
olives intermixed with apricots and pomegranates, but no palms. 
Towards this I proceeded along the banks of a stream, to visit 
the ruins that were said to exist at Beled-el-Kamyseh. I found, 
however, nothing but the remains of thick stone walls, now 
forming part of a donkey-shed. A man dwelt in a small hut 
close at hand, probably as a guard to the plantation; but there 
were no signs of a village. I gave a piastre to my guide to 
buy some pomegranates ; and he slipped behind me as 1 went 
away, and returned with about a dozen, which I have reason to 
believe he had plucked, keeping the money to himself. 

In a field near the wood of Kamyseh I noticed the spine of 
a camel fixed on the top of a pole ; and near at hand the horns 
of a goat. These were set up as charms to protect the planta- 
tions from the evil eye. I afterwards noticed the same thing 
all over the Oasis ; and I remember also seeing the skull of a 
camel at Garah above the door of a house, just as the civilized 
people of England nail a horseshoe. In Egypt the usual charm 
used is an aloe-plant. 

I returned by the side of the stream, over the ground I had 
already traversed, until I came on a line again with the hill of 
Kamyseh, which reared its catacombed sides direct out of the 
plain. In front was the prolongation of the hill of Amoudein ; 
whilst to the left stretched the valley, bounded, and at some 
distance once more obstructed, by isolated, conical hills. At 
the foot of Amoudein was an insignificant ruin of brick, proba- 
bly a convent in Christian times, but so dilapidated as scarcely 
to be worth even a passing glance. Turning to the west, I 
proceeded about a mile in the direction of Beled-er-Rum, or the 
City of the Greeks, and soon came insight of the ruin for which 



RUINS OF BELED-ER-HtrM. 185 

it is remarkable; It stands in the midst of the valley, which is 
here almost completely barren. A few melon beds, at wide in- 
tervals, and some wild shrubs alone enlivened the stony waste 
around. In general form and mode of construction it very 
much resembles that of Om Beydah ; but is evidently an imi- 
tation of a much more modern date, and has no inscriptions or 
sculptures of any kind. There remain erect the gateway, 
facing the north, and a portion of a chamber or sanctuary, with 
a roof of five solid beams of stone rather smaller than those of 
the Temple of Ammon. The ruins of this chamber form a 
m.ound about sixty feet long ; near the extremity, about twenty 
paces distant, is a hillock of stones and sand, with a hole at 
bottom opening into a passage broken through the solid founda- 
tions of some other portion of the building, probably in search 
of gold. I got down into the passage, and worked my way to 
its other extremity, and out by a small aperture, but found no- 
thing to reward my search. There are very clear traces of 
an inclosure having once existed round the temple. I may 
mention that the gateway is joined to the body of the edifice by 
side walls, each containing a small window, square without, 
but lengthening downwards within, so as to throw the light upon 
the floor. 

This fragmentary temple was the farthest point to which I 
proceeded westward ; and I could not help sitting down awhile 
under its antique shelter, and, giving the reins to my imagina- 
tion, allowed it to carry me to the palm-dotted plain of Gegabe, 
the once mysterious lake of Arashieh, and the distant Oasis of 
Augila. For a time I regretted not being able to penetrate 
farther into the Desert ; but the knowledge that the i^ew tra- 
vellers who have ever reached those regions have found nothing 



186 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

to reward their curiosity soon consoled me, and I turned to 
reflect with great complacency on the fact that I was the second 
Englishman who had ever reposed within the solitary ruin of 
Beled-er-Ram ! 

My impatient black guide scarcely allowed me leisure to 
make a rough sketch of the ruin ; but warned me constantly 
that time was passing, and that if we tarried long we should 
not reach home before darkness came on. I at length re- 
mounted my refractory donkey ; and the brute sidled away 
towards Araoudein. On the way I met a man carrying a load 
of cucumbers, one of which he insisted on my accepting. I 
did so without much difficulty, pleased to find that bigotry was 
almost entirely monopolized by the inhabitants of Siwah-el- 
Kebir. 

Having regained the pass I have before mentioned, I left 
my donkey and my black to roll on the grass beside the clear, 
gurgling brook that shoots its eddying waters towards the salt 
lake beyond, and climbed up the hill of Amoudein to have a 
good view of the Oasis. About three or four hundred feet from 
the base 1 was stopped by a line of precipices, beneath which I 
sat down for some time to sketch a sort of panoramic view of 
the valley, including Edrar Amclal, near at hand on my right, 
and Om-el-Yus in the distance on my left. Between these two 
points, on various planes, appeared the salt lakes, the little 
islands scattered here and there, the great palm-groves, the 
three conical hills of Sid Hamet, Siwah, and El Mouta, the 
castellated village of Gharmy, the five peaks of Edrar Abou 
Bryk, and the long line of white waves of sand. To the left 
of my position there was an opening in the limestone-hills, 
with a hamlet near which, as I afterwards learnt, were some 



HILL OF AMOUDEIN DATES. 187 

vineyards, producing a large supply of grapes, from which are 
made tolerably good raisins, consumed principally in the 
Oasis. 

The hill of Amoudein is composed of calcareous rock full 
of immense numbers of fossil shells, principally oyster shells ; 
in that of Kamyseh I noticed no fossils, but the layers of stone 
alternated with thin veins of hardened mud streaked with 
yellow. I may here mention, by the way, that Edrisi makes 
the obelisks of Alexandria, commonly called Cleopatra's 
Needles, to have been brought from the neighborhood of Siwah. 

I returned late in the afternoon to the tent, when I learnt 
that, after some negotiation, permission had been obtained for 
us to visit the hill that impends over the town. Of this permis- 
sion we availed ourselves, and found that the base was covered 
with houses, some in ruins, others inhabited, forming a suburb 
under the superintendence of our friend Sheikh Yusuf. Half 
way up the face of the hill are some large caves, catacombs or 
quarries ; but without inscriptions or ornaments. In one of 
my rides 1 remember seeing on the other side the entrance of 
numerous chambers, which we did not visit. The principal 
interest of this stroll was that we obtained a view into the inte- 
rior of the inclosure on the north of the town, and under the 
walls of which we were encamped. It appeared to be the 
Shoonah, or Date-store ; and consisted of a vast open space 
covered with innumerable heaps of dates, white, blue, and 
brown, divided by walks. Close by was a white marabut, or 
tomb of a sheikh, under whose protection the fruit is left. 
There seemed to be a considerable stock waiting for exporta- 
tion ; and we learned that at this season there was a great de- 
mand for camels, sufficient of which were not to be got. There 



188 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

are reckoned to be eighty-six thousand date-trees in the Oasis, 
ivatered and profitable, and between four and five thousand 
camel loads are annually exported. The best dates are worth 
eight dollars a load at Siwah, and about double that amount in 
Alexandria. Four kinds were mentioned to us — the Sultani, 
long blue ones, not yet quite ripe ; the Farayah, white ones, 
of a kind said not to be grown in Egypt, and all exported ; the 
Saidi, or common date, eaten by the Arabs ; and the Weddee, 
good only for camels and donkeys. The last kind, I believe, 
grow on the untrimmed palm-clumps that spring up here and 
there of their own accord. No doubt there are other varieties 
with well-defined differences. Some yellow dates, of which a 
basket was sent to us as a present, were much less elongated 
than any others I have seen, with more flesh in comparison to 
the size of the stone, and very luscious. 






HISTORIC NOTICE OF AMMONIUM. IQ^ 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Sketch of the Plistory of Ammonium. 

Sufficient materials have not been handed down to us by his- 
tory for tracing back with any certainty the oracle of Jupiter 
Ammon to its origin. There is reason, however, for ranking 
it amongst the most ancient of those sacred spots on which the 
great god of the heathens was supposed to make mysterious 
revelations of the future, by the mouths of inspired priests or 
prophets, to the world. I am disposed to think that most of 
the oracles were established in places characterized by some 
remarkable natural phenomenon, which suggested the idea of 
the presence of the divinity. It is improbable that any of them 
were derived from the arbitrary choice of a designing priest- 
hood ; and it is not even necessary to suppose that any hypoc- 
risy, except of that class which seems to ally itself easily with 
fanaticism, had much to do with the construction of the re- 
sponses that were given forth. 

I set aside at once the idea that there was any connection 
between the oracles of Dodona, Delphi, and Ammon. They 
appear to have been of totally independent origin ; and the at- 
tempt made to mingle their histories by the Egyptian priests is 



190 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

calculated only to throw confusion over the subject. If it be 
true, however, that a similar institution at Thebes was an im- 
portation from Ammonium, this fact would tend to prove the 
immense antiquity of the Oracle which for so many ages uttered 
its enigmatical predictions on the now ruin-strewed glade of 
Om Beydah.* Diodorus,-)" however, attributes its foundation to 
Danaus the Egyptian. 

There is a question among geographers whether the Oasis 
of Jupiter Ammon:]: can be said to have been situated, as Pliny 
and Mela place it, in Cyrenaica, or in the province of Marma- 
rica. Properly speaking, it was beyond the southern limits of 
either ; and ought to be considered as a separate country. 
From the remotest antiquity indeed until the present time it 
seems, from its very position, to have had a constant tendency 
to independence. Very imperfect accounts have reached us 
of its ancient political condition ; but we know that, at its first 
appearance in history, it was a state governed by a king, having 
a peculiar form of religion and possibly a peculiar language. 
From several slight indications in ancient writers I am led to 
believe that the Oasis of Siwah was the principal island of a 
kind of desert archipelago, obeying a common king. Several 
of the minor dependencies have been re-discovered in modern 
times. Of these Garah is one, a valley towards Arashieh a 

* See the interesting remarks of M. A. Maury in his Note on Creuzer's 
" Religions of Antiquity." 

t S. xvii. c. 50. 

X I must give due justice to Rennell's " Geography of Herodotus," in 
which the identification of Siwah with the Oasis of Ammon was com- 
pleted before the publication of any materials but Browne's very cursory 
and imperfect dccount. 



HISTORIC NOTICE OF ABIMONIUM. 191 

second, the neighborhood of Lake Arashieh itself a third, and 
a place on the road to the Fayoom named Bahrein a fourth. 
At all these places remains are found, something similar in 
character to those at Siwah ; and our Bedawins informed us 
that to the south and southwest, at several days' journey, were 
two more green islands, inhabited by a dark-skinned race, and 
abounding in ancient remains. Near Slwah itself are nume- 
rous little spots, some with, some without traces of ancient 
buildings, which may formerly have supported a village or even 
a little town. We know, by the observation of the coast, how 
completely the fertility of a country may be destroyed by neg- 
lect. Possibly many formerly productive spots have changed 
completely into desert, whilst others have been concealed be- 
neath the sand. 

If this idea be correct, we can no longer be surprised at the 
reports that are handed down of wars being carried on between 
the Ammonians and Ethiopians. A cluster of islands such as 
I have described would have supported^ with the assistance of 
commerce, a very considerable population, and invested the dy- 
nasty, to which the kings Clearchus and Libys belonged, with 
far more importance than is generally allowed it. 

The origin of the Ammonian people is entirely wrapped in 
obscurity. The ancients tell us they were a mixed colony of 
Egyptians and Ethiopians,* founding the idea no doubt on the 
same phenomenon that is now observable, half the people pre- 
senting a negro character, the rest being comparatively light 
colored. The traditions represent a close connection as exist- 
ing between the Oasis of ^Ethiopia and Egypt ; but the genuine 

* Herod, ii. 42. See the note of Creuzer. 



192 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

Pelasgic Mythology has been too much mixed in more modern 
times with that peculiar to the banks of the Nile to enable us 
to distinguish what may be really Libyan in the story of An- 
dromeda, daughter of the king of Jjithiopia, exposed to be de- 
voured by a sea-monster at the instigation of the oracle of Am- 
mon,* of the halt of Perseus at the temple on his way to en- 
counter the Gorgon, and of the visits of Hercules when march- 
ing against Anteeus and Busiris.f 

The god called Jupiter Aramon is generally represented as 
Krioprosopic, or ram-faced ; but there is reason to believe that 
this was not the original form of the god of the Ammonians. 
Quintus Curtius, who no doubt copied the materials of his gran- 
diloquent description from the best authorities, distinctly says 
that the god was represented in the shape of the bezil of a ring, 
and was ornamented with emeralds and other gems. As an 
incidental confirmation of this, I may mention that the Arab 
historian Makrizi speaks of emerald mines in the neighborhood 
of Siwah. Diodorus gives nearly the same account, although 
he does not specify the exact form of the god. It is added that 
the representation, whatever it may have been, was carried 
about in a sort of boat gilded and adorned with silver cups de- 
pending on either side,:|: by eighty priests, who seem to have 
affected to receive an impulse from the idol itself which deter- 
mined the direction in which they were to go.§ This reminds 
one of the Egyptian Welis, whose bodies have all sorts of 
caprices, refusing to be carried down certain streets, so that 

* Apollodor. ii. v. § 3. t Arrian, iii. 2. 

t Compare Thrige, Res Cyraenensium, p. 296. Compare the Engra- 
vings. 

§ Diod, Sic. xvii 49. I 



HISTORIC NOTICE OF AMMONITJIW. 193 

six strong bier-bearers even by taking a run cannot succeed in 
overcon[)ing their obstinacy.* The god of Amnion, then, by 
exerting a similar influence, seems to have made a regular 
progress through the palm-groves of the Oasis before retiring 
to the temple and giving the sought-for oracle. A crowd of 
women and girls followed, chanting rude ditties : patrio more 
inconditum quoddam carmen canentes.-\ 

The rudeness of the form of the original image of the god 
is favorable to the great antiquity of the Ammonian religion. 
How it became mixed with the complicated Egyptian and Greek 
mythologies, and how the ram-faced divinity came to take its 
place by the side of the primitive hezil, it would be difficult to 
trace. Certain it is that the mixture has been made, and that 
great confusion is the result. It has been suggested that the 
worship of the god Amoun or Ammon only became known in 
Greece at the epoch of the foundation of Gyrene, about the 
year 648 ; and that after that time the legends which con- 
nected him with the Olympian Zeus were invented. In the 
time of Herodotus if the ram-headed figure had been intro- 
duced ; and it was always considered by the Greeks and Ro- 
mans to be identical in character with their Jupiter or Zeus, 
though different in form — 

Stat sortiger illic 



Jupiter, ut memorant,sed non aut fuhnina vibrans, 
Aut similis nostro, sed tortiscornibus Hammon.§ 

One of the most obscure events connected with the history 
of Ammonium is the attempted invasion of Cambyses. The 

* See Lane's ' Modern Egyptians.' t Quint. Curt., iv. 7, 29. 
i iv, 181. § Lucan. PharsaL, ix. 512-514. 

q 



194 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN f)ESEIlT. 

vastness of the army he put in motion for the purpose proves 
that the Libyan state was much more powerful than is commonly 
supposed. It started from Thebes, passed the great Oasis, and 
after seven days' journey perished utterly in the desert, most 
probably from having taken an insufficient supply of water.* 
We have no other record of any military expedition having 
been sent in ancient times against the kingdom of Ammon, 
which seems, on the contrary, to have always preserved a pru- 
dent neutrality, content with a flourishing commerce and a re- 
putation of peculiar sanctity. 

Siwah, or Ammonium, has always been a great commer- 
cial station in the route of intercourse between Egypt and the 
states of Northern, Western, and even Central Africa. The 
periodical passage of immense caravans, which found it neces- 
sary to halt and refresh themselves by the side of its glittering 
streams and beneath the shadow of its vast groves, no doubt 
contributed to enrich the inhabitants, who carried on also a 
trade in their own productions both with Egypt and Cyrene, 
I do not agree with those, however, who derive from this the 
religious celebrity of the place. f There are many Oases, but 
there was only one Oracle in the desert ; and Delphi and Do- 
dona, equally celebrated, owed certainly nothing to commerce. 
It is worth mentioning that the first report of the existence of 
the Niger river that reached Europe came from some people 
of Gyrene, who, in an interview with Clearchus^ King of the 
Ammonians, had heard of the discovery made by certain Nasa- 
monian travellers, 

* Herod, iii. 26 ; Diodorus, Fragment. 
t See Heren on the Ancient Commerce of Africa. 



ORACLE OF AMMON. 195 

It soon became the custom, both in Greece and Asia Minor, 
to consult the oracle of Ammon with reference to the result of 
any important enterprise. Croesus, King of Lydia, once sent 
to ask advice as to whether he should undertake a Persian war* 
The Elians were particularly celebrated for their veneration 
of the Libyan god. Pausanias mentions a temple raised to his 
honor at Ells, where upon a tablet were engraved the questions 
that had been sent for solution to the oracle, the answers of 
the god, and the names of the deputies who went with them. 
We find several traces of the worship of Ammon at Athens ; 
and it must not be forgotten, that when Cimon was lying off the 
coast of Cyprus (b. c. 449), meditating the conquest of Egypt 
and the overthrow of the Persian empire, he sent some friends 
to the oracle charged with a secret mission. What its subject 
was has never transpired ; but when the messengers entered 
the temple, the god, without listening to their questions, or- 
dered them to return, saying " Cimon is already with me !" 
They returned accordingly, and found that about the time 
when the god spake to them the great general had expired.* 

That the Spartans, on account of their connection with 
Cyrene, should come to have a peculiar veneration for Ammon 
is not at all surprising. They had a temple dedicated to him ;f 
and often sent to consult him on the subject of wars or colonial 
establishments. Between King Libys, moreover, and Ly- 
sander, there was an hereditary bond of hospitality, of which 
the latter on one occasion endeavored to avail himself in an 
improper manner. We have the record of two journeys of 

* Plutarch. Cimon, c. 18 ; Thrige, Res Cyraenenses, p. 296. 
t See Pausan. iii 18 ; Cicero de Divin., i. 42. 



196 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

Lysander to the Oasis. The first was when, finding his popu- 
larity diminish at Sparta, he thought it wise to remove himself 
out of the way for a while, and accordingly set sail for Gyrene, 
from whence he made his way probably by the usual caravan 
road to Ammonium. During his absence the Thirty Tyrants 
of Athens were overthrown. On a subsequent occasion, when 
he was intriguing for the sovereignty, and had in vain en- 
deavored to corrupt the Delphian Pythoness, he started off once 
more for Ammonium, trusting to the friendship of King Libys, 
after whom his own brother had been named, and to the influence 
of money. The god of Ammon, however, was always cele- 
brated for poverty ; his servants were not in the habit of 
making the temple a treasury, but preserved the primitive sim- 
plicity of early times.* Lysander failed accordingly, and the 
priests sent deputies to Lacedemon to accuse him. He was ab- 
solved ; and the Libyans, on leaving, said — "We will judge 
with greater justice when you come to establish yourself in 
Libya" — for there was an ancient oracle to the effect that the 
Lacedemonians were one day to inhabit that country. f I will 
add that Ammon was adored at Asbystis, or Pallene, with as 
much respect as in the Oasis itself, and that the god is repre- 
sented as saving it from being stormed by a direct and miracu- i 
lous intervention. J 

The Thebans had also a great veneration for Ammon, 
arising from their having sent a colony to Gyrene. They 
possessed a temple and a statue of the god, dedicated by Pindar 

* Lucan. Pharsal., ix. 119. 

t Plutarch, Lysand., c. ^0, 25 ; Diod. Sic, xiv. 13 ; Cornel. Nep. Ly- 
sand., §3. 

t Plat. Lysan., c. 20. 



VISIT OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 197 

himself.* The poet likewise wrote an ode to Ammon, and 
sent a copy of it to the priests. The beginning only has been 
preserved ;| but in the time of Pausanias it existed entire, 
engraved on a three-sided column at the altar erected by Ptole- 
my, son of Lagus, to the Libyan Zeus. 

We now come to the event which has, perhaps, con- 
tributed more than any other to the celebrity, in modern times 
at least, of the Oasis — I mean the visit of Alexander the Great. 
The details given of his journey by classical writers are few ; 
and Diodorus Siculus, Arrian, Quintus Curtius, and others, 
do little more than reproduce the same facts. We are told 
that, after having put the affairs of Egypt in order, Alexander 
took it into his head to rival the exploits of his ancestor Her- 
cules, and pay a visit to the oracle of Ammon. None of the 
ancient historians make any statement as to the number of 
people he took with him, but they sometimes talk as if he was 
accompanied by an army. I doubt, however, if this was the 
case. Certain it is, that the preparations made for the journey 
do not seem to have been on a very large scale. There 
were only taken camels and skins sufficient to carry water 
for four days.:]: 

Alexander marched along the coast, by the same route that 
we followed, as far as ParoBtonium, finding water in the wells, 
but encountering no cities. It was at a subsequent period, as 
I have before observed, that that desert country was colonized 
and invested with artificial fertility. During the first portion 
of the journey the army encountered none of the frightful diffi- 

* Pausan., ix. 16. t Schol. Find, ad Pyth., ix. 89. 

t Quint. Curt., iv. 7, § 29. 



198 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

culties which, in those times as in ours, the timid Egyptians* 
represent as existing. At Parsetonium (which travellers have 
thought thoy recognized as Bareton, a name I could hear no- 
thing of at Mudar) Alexander met ambassadors from Cyrene,! 
coming to him with propitiatory presents. It appears from 
Strabo that the usual point at which caravans turned off from 
the sea for the Oasis was Apis, a hundred stadia to the east. 
This place, which is called a village by Strabo, in whose time 
the celebrity of the oracle had declined, is designated by Scy- 
lax as a city. The difference may be accounted for by the 
immense falling off in the number of travellers. I am inclined 
to place Apis somewhere in the position of Mudar, the existence 
of which is almost entirely owing to the passage of the outward 
bound caravans, the return ones now taking a shorter cut, and 
which would now have been of some considerable importance 
had it not been destroyed some years ago by the Pasha, and its 
inhabitants removed to the Baharah. 

It was at Parsetonium, however, a few miles to the west, 
that Alexander, after having taken in a supply of water, left 
the coast and struck into the desert. It is possible, as I have 
suggested in another chapter, that he may have crossed a small 
tract of sandy country before joining the route we followed ; 
but it is more probable that most of what we read in his histori- 
ans about the frightful moving sands in the midst of which he 
found himself, is the production of fancy. The idea the an- 
cients had of a desert was an expanse of fine moving sand, 
sometimes in a state of quiescence like a calm sea, at other 

* Hesc ^gyptii vero majora jactabant. Quint. Curt., iv. 7, 28. 
t Diod. Sic. xvii. 49. 



VISIT OF ALEXANDER THE GKEAT. 199 

times rolled into billows, and thrown up in clouds by the 
wind. Such is no doubt the case in some parts of the Libyan 
Desert ; and, except on the rocky ridges, it is not uncommon 
to see the sand driven along the surface of the desert like a 
light spray or filling the whole atmosphere with a vast mist. 
According to Arrian this is the case on the road from Parseto- 
nium to Siwah, when the south wind blows ; but I did not see 
sufficient sand to justify the description. As to the extensive 
plains or table-lands that occur, I have already described them. 
It is not inaccurate to compare their appearance to a sea — not, 
it is true, of sand — but of stones. There are seldom any land- 
marks to assist the traveller, who, as of old, directs his course 
by the stars,* or by the little heaps of stones piled up at inter- 
vals by successive caravans for the purpose. At some points 
it is perfectly correct to compare the caravan to a ship looking 
out for land — terram oculis requirehant. There is really no 
tree, no vestige of cultivated soil.f 

According to the most probable account Alexander was 
eight days traversing the desert. At the end of four of these, 
during which the party must have moved at a royal and dila- 
tory pace, the water in the skins was exhausted and the horrors 
of thirst began to be felt. A copious rain, however, came on 
and restored strength and courage to the despairing expedition. 
They now, it appears, found out that they had lost their way, 
and seemed to have wandered about in uncertainty for some 
time. I have already mentioned that, from the nature of the 
country, the monotonous character of the hills, and the laby- 
rinthine windings of the valleys, it is very difficult to maintain a 

« Arrian, iii. 2, ^ 2. t Quint. Curt., iv. 7, 29. 



200 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

direct line in traversing this country ; we ourselves missed the 
track during a whole night, for the same reason. On account 
of the existence of the heaps of stones, which seem to be of mo- 
dern date, our guide was enabled to repair our misfortune with 
ease ; but Alexander, as the chroniclers of his exploits inform 
us, was reduced to depend on the miraculous interposition of a 
crow, or two crows, or a flight of crows. The rational inter- 
pretation of this fanciful story has been given in a previous 
page. There is every probability that the denominations of 
places in the desert, when once given, do not easily change ;* 
and I have no doubt that many of the various " Nughs,'' or 
Passes, which occur on the caravan road to Siwah, had acquired 
the name they now bear long before the journey of Alexander. 
One of the principal of these Nugbs is the only way by which 
it seems possible to descend from the tract of hilly country, or 
rather the great range of hills interspersed with table-lands that 
extends thither from the sea, into the nameless valley, or basin 
filled with detached rocky hills, lying between that range and 
another called the Milky Mountains. This Nugb is called the 
Pass of the Crow, and because it ultimately led Alexander out 
of his difficulties may have given rise to the tradition which 
says, " the crow showed him the way." 

Let us now trace the further progress of the conqueror. At 
the end of the eight days he reached certain cities of the Am- 
monians. which I am inclined to identify with Garah, at that 
time no doubt one of the most important of the desert Sporades 
of which the Libyan state was made up. It is true that we 
performed the same distance in little more than fifty hours of 

* See some of the curious discussions inForbes's ' Geography of Arabia.' 



VISIT OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 201 

actual travelling, but we pushed on at times at a rate much 
exceeding the usual caravan pace. Besides, the Bedawins 
who accompanied Alexander only filled their kurhelis for four 
days : this was about what they would do if they looked for- 
ward to a five days' march, as they prefer being pinched a lit- 
tle towards the end to overloading their camels. The addi- 
tional time expended was owing to the leisurely movements at 
the outset and the loss of the track. 

A hundred stadia before reaching the cities of the Ammoni- 
ans Alexander came to a bitter lake. Now, at the northern 
foot of the Milky Mountains during the night previous to our 
arrival at Garah, we crossed the bed of a dried-up lake at least 
a mile in extent ; this may be the very spot. 

Diodorus Siculus represents Alexander as passing in one 
day's journey from the cities of the Ammonians to the principal 
Oasis. We took two days, but caravans sometimes perform 
the distance in one ; a,nd it is probable that the impatient tra- 
veller left the principal part of his train behind and pushed on 
with a few attendants to the capital. 

It is needless to transcribe the rapturous and exquisite de- 
scriptions found in the Greek and Roman historians of the 
scenery presented by the Oasis at the time of the visit of Alex- 
ander. From its beauty even in its present degraded state, we 
have a right to infer that their language rather fell short of 
than exceeded the reality. They mention the palms, the olives, 
and the other fruit trees that abounded in the Oasis, and dilate 
upon its salubrity as a place of residence. I have no doubt 
that the fevers which now infest the place are caused entirely 
by the neglect which allows the collection of stagnant and fetid 
water that ought to be used up in irrigation. 



202 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

As is the case at present, there were several villages in the 
Oasis : indeed the people seem to have lived in scattered 
hamlets amongst the trees ; whilst the kings, the priests, and 
the rich fomilies dwelt in fortified places. There is every 
prohability that at both the eastern and western extremity of 
the valley there were numerous little dots of verdure ; but the 
palm-groves seem always to have been confined to the centre 
island. The lakes were probably in the same state then as 
now. The salt was much esteemed and was sent in baskets to 
Egypt as presents to the kings and the great dignitaries. Even 
the Persian monarch had his table supplied with salt from this 
distant spot.* On the Fountain of the Sun 1 have already 
made some observations. f 

The interview of Alexander with the priests in the sanctu- 
ary of the temple at Om Beydah was perfectly satisfactory ; 
and the son of Philip went away with a good excuse for 
asserting his divine origin and wearing the tortuous horns of 
Ammon. Some person, jealous of the honor of the servants of 
the oracle, has endeavored to explain away the whole circum- 
stance by saying that the prophet, as he stood in the gloomy 
depths of the sanctuary, began to address Alexander in Greek, 
and meaning to say " O Paidion !" " O my son !" said " O Pai 
Dios !" " O son of Jupiter !" If this be the case, as a French 
commentator remarks, the solecism of an African priest intoxi- 
cated a madman full of genius with vanity, and led to the 
melancholy fate of Callisthenes. 

* Athen., ii. 74. See a curious passage in Synesius (Epist. 147), on 
the Ammonian salt. 

t See Herod., iv. 181 ; Diod. Sic. xvii. 10 ; Quint. Curt, iv. 7, 29 ; 
Arrian, iii 9, § 2 ; Pomp. Mela, i. 3. 



RETURN OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 203 

The Macedonian returned to Egypt by the same way he 
came, and then continued to prosecute his Asiatic conquests. 
At the death of Hephsestion, however, he remembered the oracle 
of Ammon, and sent to demand permission to pay him divine 
honors. This was refused, but the rank of a hero was assigned 
to the deceased favorite.* 

After the age of Alexander we lose sight for some time of 
the kingdom of Ammon : there is every reason to believe, how- 
ever, that its celebrity increased, and that many of the temples, 
the traces of which may now be found, bearing something of a 
Doric character (as, for example that at Beled-er-Rum), were 
built during the period that intervened before Siwah suffered 
the fate of the rest of the world and fell under the dominion of 
the Romans. It does not appear, however, that this people ever 
looked with any great respect on the oracle, believing rather in 
the auguries of birds, or the inspection of entrails, and in the 
Sibylline leaves. They were too political, moreover, to allow 
their magnificent scheme of universal conquest to run the 
chance of being checked by the decisions of a foreign deity 
speaking through the mouth of a barbarian priest, who might 
not be venal, in the depths of a desert. The progress of the 
skeptical philosophy had also something to do with the disre- 
spect into which this and other oracles gradually fell. When 
Cato of Utica, if Lucan's representation be at all correct, visited 
the Oasis, he was urged by his friend Labienus to enter the 
sanctuary and question the future. He however refused, 
saying he did not believe in the peculiar presence of God in 

* Arrian, vii. 2. 



204 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

this particular locality : his seat was the earth, the seas, the 
air, the heaven, and virtue. 

Jupiter est quodcumque vides, quocumque moveris. 

When such speculations as these began to be indulged in, 
the fate of the oracle was sealed, and not very many ages 
afterwards it must have grown dumb. At length Christianity flew 
across these deserts as a bird flies across the wide seas, alight- 
ing on every fertile spot on its way, and the fane of Ammon is 
said to have been consecrated to the Virgin Mary. Of its 
fortunes during the succeeding periods we know nothing, except 
that many monasteries arose within its limits, and that exiles 
were often sent thither by the Roman emperors. It continued, 
however, to be a great commercial mart until the neighboring 
countries of Egypt, of Marmarica, and Cyrene began to relapse 
rapidly into barbarism. Synesius, Bishop of Ptolemais, gives 
a melancholy description of the ruin of the last-mentioned pro- 
vince in the fifth century — the overthrow of churches, the pol- 
lution of grave-yards, the castles razed to the ground, the 
flocks and herds driven ofl*. The same destruction fell upon 
Marmarica, principally accomplished by the desert tribes which 
from time immemorial had occupied the less fertile parts of the 
country, and which seized on the first favorable opportunity of 
rooting out an exotic civilization from their land. In all these 
misfortunes no doubt the kingdom of Ammon shared, losing 
moreover immensely by the diminished number of the caravans, 
perhaps their total cessation for a time. The latter seems pi'oba- 
ble from the circumstance of the Arab historians mentioning tra- 
ditions of the re-discovery of all the Oasis by people who had 



PRIMITIVE CONDITION OF THE OASES. 205 

wandered from Egypt. When caravans did pass to and fro 
from east and west probably they for a time adopted the coast 
road. 

This brings me to the curious passages contained in the 
Arabic historians with reference to the primitive condition of 
the Oases. They speak of them as abounding in marvels such 
as are described in the most imaginative tales of the " Arabian 
Nights." They fill them with palaces, and circuses, and magic 
mirrors, and pinnacles on which brazen birds were stationed as 
guardians of the cities. In their poetical language all this 
must be taken as a description of the most flourishing times of 
Ammonium. They all agree with Herodotus in ascribing the 
original colonization of the place to "the Coptic kings;" but 
according to Makrizi that obscure people the Berbers soon came 
and joined them. For a long period the two races lived har- 
moniously together, and were united by the bands of marriage. 
Civil feuds, however, at length broke out and constant fights 
took place, so that the population rapidly decreased, the Berber 
element getting the upper hand : to what period of history this 
refers it is difficult to decide. 

When Mousa, son of Nossier, in the time of the Ommy- 
ades, had conquered Egypt (a.d. 708), he attempted to reduce 
the Oasis, but was so valiantly repulsed that he came back and 
said the walls and the gates of the city were made of iron. 
Tharic ben Zayad, the invader of Spain, made a second un- 
successful attempt two years afterwards and told the same story 
to explain his defeat. It is probable that it was at this time 
that the population consisted of the relics of the Ammonian 
race and a strong infusion of the Berbers. This people, if we 



206 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

can accept their traditions in the place of more certain informa- 
tion, were descended from the Philislines, and paid a peculiar 
veneration to the memory of Goliath, after whom one of the 
mountains near Siwah was named. It is possible they had a 
Phoenician origin. However this may be, mixed with the Am- 
monians, they professed the Christian religion, and made a long 
and valiant resistance to the Muslim invasion. It is not until 
A.D. 1150 that we find the Koran triumphant and the seat of 
an Imam established within sight of the venerable remains of 
Om Beydah.* 

In the fifteenth century we find Siwah at a very low ebb 
indeed, the Berber population having dwindled down to six 
hundred, whilst the other tribes had, no doubt, diminished in an 
equal or greater proportion. The place was celebrated for its 
emerald and iron mines, but had become subject to fever and 
infested with noxious animals. Its fertility, however, continued 
unabated : it exported dates, raisins, figs, and jujubes ; and 
Makrizi relates that he saw there. an orange-tree as large as an 
Egyptian sycamore, producing fourteen thousand oranges every 
year. 

From this period forward Siwah decreased in importance, 
and was allowed gradually to acquire a complete independence, 
and to constitute itself into a sort of rude republic. In this 
state it was found by our enterprising countryman Browne 
when he re-discovered it in modern times. But Mohammed Ali 
acquiring power in Egypt, and infusing a good deal of destruc- 
tive vigor into the administration, one of his subordinates, Has- 

* See LangleSj M^moires sur les Oasis, d'aprfes les Auteurs Arabes. 



DECLINE OF SIWAH. 207 

san Bey Sham ash urghi, planned and obtained permission to 
carry out an invasion, and, in 1819, burst like a thunderbolt 
upon the Oasis, defeated its inhabitants, profaned their inviolate 
city of salt, counted their trees, and saddled them with a tribute. 
An account of the expedition may be found in the first part of 
an illustrated publication in imperial folio, begun many years 
ago by M. Jomard from the papers of M. Drovetti, and intended 
to be entirely devoted to the Oasis of Sivvah. Unfortunately 
it remains to this day unfinished. Our guide, Sheikh Yunus, 
accompanied Hassan Bey, and gave us his account of the af- 
fair. He said there were two hundred Egyptian horse, three 
guns, five hundred Bedawins, and seven hundred camels to 
carry water. The march only occupied fourteen days by the 
same route that we took from Alexandria. When they arrived, 
the Bedawins, who hate the Siwahis and felt themselves well 
backed, did nearly all the work with their swords and guns. 
Thirty-two natives and only three Arabs were killed. Since 
that time Siwah has been regarded as part of the Pasha's do- 
minions, although his authority has often been slighted in mat- 
ters of detail. About three years ago, encouraged by their 
distance from the seat of government and the difficulty of the 
roads, they had much relaxed in the punctuality with which 
they paid their tribute, and a body of forty horse with a number 
of Bedawins came from Cairo to bring them to their senses. 
On this occasion heavy additional contributions were levied, and 
the Egyptian troops, who encamped within a fortified barrack 
commanding the town, which was moreover kept in awe by a 
battery of one gun, made themselves very unpopular. The 
principal Sheikh, moreover, was sent away as a hostage. In 



208 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

about eight months the troops withdrew, having inflicted what 
should have been a salutary lesson on this headstrong and big- 
oted people ; but it does not appear that their spirit is much 
subdued. The revenues of Siwah are now farmed by a native 
merchant of Alexandria for a sum of ten thousand dollars. 



LjiNGUAGE OF THE SIWAHIS. 209 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Observations on the Language, Manners, Appearances, Origin, &c., of the 
People of Siwah — The Productions of the Place, its Commerce, &c. 

It will readily be imagined that, during the short time I stayed 
in the Oasis of Siwah, I was not able to collect materials for a 
complete account of the people. We cannot read as we run, 
nor gather statistics and traits of manners like pebbles by the 
highway. It requires much patient study to understand the 
character of the smallest tribe of men, and we must live for a 
long time in the midst of them to collect any thing valuable 
on their habits and modes of life. There was a time when I 
was more rash and confident; but I have come a good deal in 
contact with travellers of late in a country with which I am 
tolerably familiar, and have remarked that even the shrewdest 
make three mistakes in every four observations. Thus I have 
learned to be more cautious than of yore. 

It is really indispensable to know something of the language 
of a people if you would form any thing like a correct opinion 
of them. I am aware that this is an original idea which will 
not find favor with the modern traveller ; but I nevertheless 
maintain it to be perfectly correct, and am much less positive 
in my opinions of the Siwahls than I should be if I were able 



210 



ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 



to penetrate within that other and more familiar and domestic 
circle of thought which finds expression with them in their 
dialect of the Berber. This is the language they curse in ; 
and there is a great deal to be learned of the character of a 
people from the manner in which they break the third com- 
mandment. They pray, however, in Arabic ; at least they 
have no translation of the Koran ; and indeed their language, 
whatever it may formerl)^ have been, is not now written, ex- 
cept in ordinary letters, and that but seldom — no great loss to 
them, by the way, for not one in a thousand can read. 

I began a small vocabulary of Siwahi words, but did not 
get very far with it. Had I been aware at the time of the 
scanty knowledge possessed of this language, I should have en- 
deavored to be much more complete. The following will serve 
as a specimen : — 



^ Aman . 


. 


water. 


^ Awgeed 


a man. 


^ Anou 


. 


a well. 


^ Tultee . 


. a woman. 


3 Tagillah. 


. 


bread. 


^ Fucht 


the sun. 


^ Jerdun 




wheat. 


* Jeiee 


. the stars. 


"" Teenah . 


. 


dates. 


^ Agmar 


a horse. 


2 Teswatet . 


. 


a date-tree. 


' Zeit 


. a donkey. 


^ Edrar . 


. 


a mountain. 


^ Shal 


a town. 


^ Alghum 


. 


a camel. 


2 Agbin 


. a house. 


^ Bunduk (Ar. 


Bend 


0- 


2 Tabragh . 


tobacco. 


giyeh) 




a gun. 


3 Timseeh . 


. fire. 


^ Toksil 




a knife. 


^ Usaghuz 


writing. 


* Sad (Ar. Asayeh) 


a stick. 


^ Lugalim (Ar. 


Galim) a pen. 


* Zurabeen . 


. 


a shoe. 


' Dahan . 


. . oil. 


2 Kyazut . 


. 


a fowl. 


^ Tibber 


gold. 


* Giddee 


. 


sand. 


2 Amelal . 


. white. 


* Geer 




a boy. 







SIWAHI VOCABULARY. 211 

In this brief vocabulary, which I give exactly as I wrote it 
under the shade of a palm-clump at Garah, from the answers of 
our escort of four men from Sivvah, the words marked 1, are 
imported from the Arabic ; those marked 2, are to be found in 
various vocabularies of the Berber dialect ; those marked 3, 
occur in a list of Ghadamsee words written by Taleb Ben Musa 
bel Kasem ; while those marked 4, appear to be entirely new : 
at any rate I have not yet been able to find them after a 
careful search through all the vocabularies that have come in 
my way. We may presume, however, that they are correct- 
ly written, from the circumstance of the remainder of the list 
being so completely confirmed by other documents. I will add 
that there is a probability that the word " Om" prefixed to 
many of the names of places in this part of the Libyan Desert, 
as well as in Egypt, may be Berber, although the Arabs explain 
it to mean " Mother." According to them, " Om-el-Yus" is 
" the Mother of Yus ;" " Om Beydah," " the Mother of Bey- 
dab ;" " Om-es-Soghayer" (as the Bedawins call Garah), "the 
Mother of the Little One ;" " Om Eayme," " the Mother of 
Eayme." These names, they say, indicate the tombs of fe- 
male Marabuts ; but I believe them to be misled by the 
similarity of sound. There seem some other words used by 
the Arabs of the Libyan Desert, which, as far as I know, are 
peculiar to them : Garah, pi. Gour, means a mountain or hill ; 
Gaood, is a camel ; and Nugb, a pass. Gebel is never used 
except in the sense of a desert ; all the hills in the neighbor, 
hood of the Oasis are called either Edrar (pure Berber) or Ga- 
rah. 

A great many of the words in common use are imported 



212 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

wholesale from the Arabic ;* and I have no doubt that the 
latter language is daily gaining ground. Most of the people 
seem to speak it more or less : they would otherwise be unable 
to carry on their intercourse with the Bedawins who come and 
go and wander hither and tliither, and have no leisure or pa- 
tience to learn this unharmonious gibberish. I repeatedly 
asked the Siwahi words for day and night ; but could get noth- 
ing but Arabic. M. Drovetti says that the Siwahis have an 
unwillingness to reveal their language to strangers, which he 
infers to be the case because they used Arabic in speaking to 
him, but not among themselves. I should not have thought it 
necessary to draw so refined an inference from the fact that 
they addressed him in a language which they thought he would 
understand, and not in one of which they knew he was ignorant. 
I noticed, on the contrary, that those of whom I inquired words 
seemed rather to be flattered than otherwise, and showed an 
alacrity to satisfy me quite unexpected, considering their re- 
luctance to allow us to examine the country. 

Traces of the Berber language still linger about Damanhour 
in the province of Baharah. This was told me by Linant Bey, 
one of the Europeans who visited Siwah under the protection 
of Hassan Bey. I remember myself talking once with a 
Levantine just returned from that neighborhood, and he said 
that the women of the villages employ a peculiar language 

* It has been observed that the letter t is both prefixed and affixed by 
the Siwahis to Arabic words in order to appropriate them ; but my infor- 
mants said bunduJe for gun, not tabundukt. See " Vocabulaires apparte- 
nant k diverses Contrees de I'Afrique," published by M. Jomard ; and the 
valuable Grammar and Dictionary of Venture. 



THE BERBER LANGUAGE. 213 

called, I suppose from its barbarous sound, the language of 
birds ! Few men comprehend any thing of it ; and their wives, 
therefore, can conspire amongst themselves against them in 
their very presence without being understood. My informant 
could only cite tumtee, which he translated, but I believe by 
guess-work. I wrote tultee at Siwah for " woman," but in all 
the vocabularies of Berber, brought from various parts of 
Africa, I have been able to consult, tumtoot occurs with this 
meaning. I may add that M. Kienig gives tultan for " woman ;" 
but I am positive the Siwahis said tultee. As, moreover, an in 
this language is the plural termination, the difference may be 
merely one of number. 

I will just allude to the opinion which has been put forward 
to the effect that the Berber language bears a strong affinity 
to the Coptic. It is supposed that in ancient times all the dia- 
lects spoken in Northern Africa were cognate ; and that the 
Berber race in all the changes of their fortunes have preserved 
much of the ancient forms of speech. A careful study of the 
dialect spoken in Slwah might throw considerable light on this 
question, as the spot nearest to Egypt is that where most traces 
of its ancient language ought to be discovered. We must not, 
however, as I have hinted, expect to find a pure dialect among 
these people. On the contrary, Arabic has usurped the place 
of a great portion of the ancient tongue ; and I have no doubt 
that the slaves, from time to time imported, have exercised 
some influence in modifying phrases and introducing words. 

I have already noticed the mixture of races at Siwah. The 
pure Berber type is difficult to be made out, but, T think, oc- 
curs in greatest perfection among the mob of Siwah-el-Kebir 
itself. The inhabitants of the other villao^es are different in 



214 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

expression and physiognomy, bearing an affinity with the Beda- 
wins, with whom they have probably intermixed. They are 
said to be much despised by the canaille of the capital, just as 
the Garah people are despised by the general body of the 
Oasians. A large proportion of the population is composed of 
blacks, some slaves, others free. Herodotus makes the place 
inhabited half by Egyptians and half by Ethiopians. 

The genuine Siwahi is of a slender make, sometimes tall 
and stooping, but generally middle-sized. He does not appear 
to be active or energetic, although capable of undergoing great 
fatigue. Numbers of them go every year to Egypt with the 
date caravans, and seem to support the journey as well as the 
Bedawins themselves. The man that accompanied us on our 
march from Garah to Siwah was a miserable-looking, knock- 
kneed fellow, but he shuffled along with considerable vigor. 
He was an inhabitant of the capital, and, like the rest of his 
countrymen, sallow and small-featured, but lacking the expres- 
sion of gloomy bigotry which lowered upon most of their faces. 
A few thin tufts of hair sprout upon the unhealthy cheeks of 
this ill-favored people. 

I do not know whether any one has attempted to identify 
the Berber race, as well as language, with the ancient Egyp- 
tian ; but if such be the case, no assistance, at any rate, can 
have been derived from a comparison of their physical charac- 
teristics. Without entering into detail, I may remark, that at 
the first sight of a Siwahi we miss the smooth brow, the contem- 
plative eye, and finely-formed though heavy mouth of the old 
people who drank of the waters of the Nile. To find a remi- 
niscence of these you need not go out of Egypt, where you may 
often seefellaha girls carrying loads upon their heads, and with 



PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SIWAHIS. 215 

their blue coverings arranged down the sides of their face, so 
as exactly to resenible the head-dress of the Sphinx. The more 
you examine their physiognomies likewise, the more impressed 
you become with the resemblance ; and the idea must suggest 
itself, that in the agricultural population of Egypt there exists 
much of the blood of the ancient race, of which the Copts are 
usually put forward as the only representatives. The fellahs, 
though perhaps slightly mixed, are nothing but Copts converted 
to Islam. 

I believe, however, if we knew more of the language and 
the internal life and modes of thought of the Siwahis, we should 
• find stronger reasons for affiliating them with the ancient race 
than can be derived from their personal appearance. It is true 
that some of their customs have changed ; they do not now 
build temples or bury their dead in catacombs ; but, as in the 
days of Herodotus, they may be said to dwell in houses of salty 
and of course receive the same modifications as of yore from 
the fact of depending almost entirely for subsistence on their 
date-crops and the passage of caravans. In some respects 
Siwah is still, as formerly, the St. Helena of the Libyan Desert. 

We had often heard, before our arrival, of the sickliness of 
Siwah, especially in autumn, and various reasons were assigned 
for it. Some said it was entirely caused by the dates, others 
by the winds, and others by the bad quality of the water. As 
soon as we had leisure to observe, however, the true reason 
suggested itself. The town is surrounded by sluggish streams,, 
or rather moats, along which a fetid current creeps at a funeral 
pace, and by standing pools covered with a heavy green mantle. 
The exhalations of these must charge the air with malady, 
and as the rooms of the houses are close and small, their inhab- 



216 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

itants are, no doubt, fully prepared to receive the infection. 
This is probably the cause why, with their heads muffled in 
the titham, the Siwahis look like so many Lazaruses, with the 
grave linen still about thein. I did not see a single man who 
appeared old, whilst all looked worn and haggard. The 
children, especially, all seemed as if just turned out of a 
hospital. The whole population are subject to intermittent 
fevers. Sore eyes also are very common, probably attributable 
to the saline particles which must be carried about by the 
wind. 

Some old writer, in describing the Oasis, forgets the 
springs, and will have the vegetation to be supported entirely 
by the dews of heaven. It is certain that there were heavy 
falls of dew during our short stay. At sunrise the thermometer 
generally stood about 64°, rising to 92°, 95°, and 105°, a little 
after noon. The air was seldom perfectly still, warm blasts 
being common in the daytime, whilst at night there was usually 
a violent northerly wind. Not the slightest resemblance of a 
cloud was seen. We asked about rain, and were told it rarely 
fell — a fortunate circumstance, as otherwise their earth and 
salt houses might melt down some day like a snow-ball at the 
approach of spring. Slight shocks of earthquakes are said to be 
very frequent, and to render the flow of water from the springs 
more copious. A large part of the wall of the town had fallen 
in, probably from some recent shock, and men were employed 
repairing it. 

As to the mode of life of these, people, it seems quite agri- 
cultural, and 1 could not learn that they manufactured any 
thing but baskets and mats. Formerly they grew indigo, but 
seem entirely to have abandoned this profitable branch of pro- 



AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. 217 

ductipn, for which they had so excellent a market in Egypt, 
nearly all their care being now devoted to the culture of dates. 
About their modes of procedure I could learn nothing, except 
that, contrary to the usage in many other countries, they both 
water and manure the trees. Most of the woods or ijroves are 
surrounded with walls chiefly composed of salt-earth, with 
fences of reeds, with a camel's bone stuck here and there as a 
charm. In many places there are orchards, nay perfect 
gardens, much more beautiful than those of Rosetta — the apri- 
cot and the olive, the pomegranate and the banana, interming- 
ling their leaves and branches at the feet of the palm-trees, 
which in some places rise to a stupendous height, and contri- 
bute, with the variegated tints of their trunks, their leaves, and 
their fruit-clusters, to increase the pleasure of the eye. I have 
mentioned the beds of hursim and the lucerne that here and 
there occur. I believe the Siwahis also grow a little barley, 
dhourra, and perhaps wheat, but the greater part of what they 
consume comes from Upper Egypt, whilst their rice is brought 
from the Wah. Among the vegetables produced are onions, 
some of them really magnificent. The evening we arrived one 
was brought as a present, quite five inches in diameter. The 
cucumbers are large but watery, and the melons insipid. I 
must not forget to mention that the oil of Siwah is quite famous 
in this part of the world. We could learn nothing of their mode 
of preparing it, but from what we saw believe it to enjoy too 
good a reputation. It is not, however, bad. We brought back, 
as a present to the Nazir of Abusir, a small skinful, which was 
highly appreciated. Our Bedawins also procured a supply, 
which served them as sauce to every thing they ate upon the 
road. 

10 



218 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

The live stock of the Oasis does not appear to be very ex- 
tensive. For a long time we were under the impression that 
there was but one cow among them all ; a few others, however, 
afterwards made their appearance. They have some fowls, 
goats, and sheep ; and a great number of little asses. These 
diminutive creatures are constantly employed carrying dates, 
which they would eat off their backs were not their necks kept 
straight by two flat pieces of stick crossed on each side. Sev- 
eral of the Sheikhs ride on horseback ; and I believe that some 
Siwahis possess camels of th^ir own, though the Bedawins 
supply the greater number of those employed in exporting the 
produce of the place. 

I wish I were able to give a completer idea of the manners 
of this secluded people than I have done, but am unwilling to 
draw upon my imagination. It would require much better 
opportunities of observation than I possessed. Perhaps a closer 
acquaintance might have induced me to soften the harshness of my 
sketch of their character. I will now add, that to strangers of 
their own faith, though always jealous and suspicious, they do 
not seem particularly inhospitable ; and that those who visit 
them on business seem to be supplied with provisions at the 
public expense — in other words, are allowed to take as much 
dates from the store as they can eat. 

Though tributary to Egypt, Siwah is still in many respects 
a republic, governed by its own laws and customs. The Sheikhs, 
I believe in number twelve, are raised to power by the suffrage 
of the people, and probably receive a formal confirmation from 
the Pasha, but are removed without ceremony in case they 
commit any unpopular act. Their authority is by no means 
absolute. They are compelled to carry on their discussions in 



GOVERNMENT OF SIWAH. 219 

the presence of the people, who often intervene with spear and 
gun, like true Jacobins, to overawe them, and prevent any ob» 
noxious measure being carried into effect. The Sheikhs, on 
the other hand, may sometimes league together and establish a 
kind of obligarchy by means of their armed slaves and follow- 
ers. All these characterislics of their government I infer from 
what went on in the place during our stay with reference to 
ourselves. 

Probably there are no more curious facts to learn about 
this remarkable people than those connected with their treat- 
ment of women, as we have seen they are extremely jealous, 
and have allowed this feeling completely to determine theic 
mode of life. In order to keep their wives and daughters 
sacred from the gaze of strangers, they have shut up themselves 
and them in a huge structure, which may be called the com- 
mon harim of the Oasis, and is governed by regulations almost 
as strict as the harims properly so denominated. I do not know 
at what age young men are excluded at night, but suppose it is 
as soon as they can shift in any way for themselves. Widow- 
ers are turned out as well as bachelors. I have mentioned that 
at Garah the men outnumbered the women. It may be proper 
to add that there was one Lais in the village ; at Siwah there 
were several, living in retired houses by themselves among the 
palm-trees. 



220 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 



CHAPTER XV, 

The bigoted Party make an unprovoked attack on us at night, and fire into 
our Tent — We obtain an Apology— Preparations for our return — Arrival 
at Garah, 

On the evening of October the 6th every thing was ready for 
a start next day. We had failed, it is true, in procuring a 
good supply of provisions, but there were no hopes of better suc- 
cess in a longer delay. There never was a place so meagerly 
provided as the Oasis of Siwah, at least if we may judge from 
our own experience. In addition to what I have already men- 
tioned, all we could get was a little hard bread, very black and 
gritty, which we had baked for us in the town, at an exorbitant 
price by the by,* and a small quantity of dried meat. The first 
was made from wheat sold by the Egyptian trader I have before 

* Our boys also got a supply for themselves, and we should all probably 
have had enough had not Yunus and Saleh pilfered the greater portion in 
the most impudent manner before we had been three days on the journey. 
I can scarcely give an idea of the audacious dishonesty of these two indivi- 
duals. Suffice it to say that, had we not kept up a good watch, we should 
have been pilfered of every thing. The bread and biscuit we were at length 
compelled to distribute in our carpet bags. 



SUPPLY OF PROVISIONS. 221 

mentioned ; the second we^ procured from some Bedavvins, who 
were not prevailed on to sell it without some difficulty. It was 
chopped into small pieces, and as they clawed it out of a skin 
with their hands, looked by no means inviting. However, when 
fried, we found it, though very salt, not at all unpalatable, 
which the reader may attribute, if he pleases, to our good appe- 
tite. The Moggrebins, who come on pilgrimage along this 
road, generally bring with them jars of oil for sale whereby to 
defray their expenses ; but in the oil they keep meat for their 
own consumption, for which reason small pieces are sometimes 
found in the common eating oil bought in the market. 

We also got some beans and a little chopped straw for our 
donkeys ; but it seemed highly probable that there would be 
famine in the caravan before it reached Alexandria. Our stock 
of biscuit was seriously diminished^ and only seven or eight 
tins of our European preserved meats remained. There was 
a small bottle of anchovies, and a diminutive jar of bloater 
paste. Our coffee was exhausted, our sugar ran low, in spite 
of a small addition we here obtained ; also the soda powders ; 
and there were not quite two bottles of brandy. A vague re- 
port had reached us that some araki was distilled from dates at 
this place, and we tried to procure some ; but although the 
Showish made himself very busy in the matter there was none 
forthcoming. It is true the supply of tobacco still looked re- 
spectable, but none of us seemed to like the idea of living on 
smoke. It was extremely lucky for us that the Siwahis as a 
body refrain from the fragrant weed ; we should otherwise 
have had plenty of visitors. Some few take snuff, and fewer 
still chew like the Bedawins. However, I believe our boys 



222 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

managed to buy a small quantity of^ tobacco for their own con- 
sumption. 

On the whole we thought it advisable to determine on prac- 
tising the strictest economy, and on making a kind of forced 
march. On our outward journey we had employed nearly 
twenty days, whereas fifteen, and sometimes thirteen, was the 
time taken by the caravans. It is true we were delayed two 
days at Abusir, and that we chose to stop one day at Mudar, 
and nearly two at Garah. Besides, we were not then inured 
to desert travelling, as now we were. There was a possibilitj'', 
therefore, that we might perform the distance in less time than 
the swiftest caravan. We resolved at any rate to try, and it 
will be seen that we succeeded. 

I dare say the reader will not be displeased on being admit- 
ted to a view of our domestic arrangements, as illustrated by 
this evening's proceedings. Our little tent was divided by im- 
aginary partitions into four apartments, each permanently allot- 
ted to one of the party. A mat, now somewhat ragged, was 
spread on the floor, and served to ward off to a certain extent 
the cold that struck upwards at night from the salt earth. 
Around the foot of the tent-wall were spread a variety of arti- 
cles, carpet-bags, and cloaks, arranged as divans, shawls, hats, 
guns, pipes, gazelle-skins stuffed with tobacco, bottles, tin cups, 
&c. A large demijohn, filled with water for ordinary consump- 
tion, stood outside the doorway ; and swinging in various direc- 
tions were our invaluable flasks, with shot-belts, powder-horns, 
and so on. The lantern hung half way up the pole, to which 
the Bedawin guns were now tied. 

It will readily be im.agined that, as soon as we were corn- 



LAST NIGHT IN THE OASIS OF SIWAH. 223 

fortably bestowed in our respective places, pipes were lighted all 
round, after which an amicable discussion arose as to whether 
it should be " grog" or " tea," two inestimable luxuries not to 
be enjoyed on the same evening. The vote having been given 
for the latter, Derweesh and Saad, who had been heard through 
the canvas astonishing the weak minds of the Bedawins by ac- 
counts of the " fast" life they led in Alexandria, received orders 
to light the fire, to boil the water, and to skim it, for at Siwah a 
thick scum always rises to the surface as soOn as it begins to 
warm. Our kettle was nothing but a tin can, employed for a 
variety of purposes, none however more important than this. 
Well, a cheerful blaze was soon lighted up, and the two lads 
crouched down to it, spreading out their blue shirts to keep off 
the wind that came sweeping along as usual, howling amidst 
the palm-groves, and threatening at every moment to bear away 
our shivering little tent. By this flickering light we could dis- 
cover our patient donkeys still weary, after four days' rest, 
hanging their noses in melancholy companionship together close 
along the wail of the plantation near at hand ; and the surly 
Yunus casting ever and anon towards us a sinister glance from 
his remaining eye ; and the good-tempered Wahsa showing his 
white teeth, and eld Saleh mumbling and shaking his long thin 
beard — all three crowded round some mess of their own making ; 
and we could dimly see the camels at no great distance, either 
holding their heads erect or working their way here and there 
in spite of their fettered legs; and in the background the huge 
dark mass of the town of Siwah rising in sullen silence against 
the sky. 

It will readily be believed that, in spite of the few causes 
of displeasure that existed, we fully enjoyed our last evening 



■234 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

in the Oasis of Sivvah. We had achieved the object for which 
we had undertaken our journey ; had received, moreover, un- 
expected delight from the contemplation of a country far more 
romantic and beautiful than we had been led to expect ; and 
were now about to return towards the place which we must re- 
gard for a time at least as our home. If other thoughts presented 
themselves — if, in the depths of the African Desert, we yearned 
towards a distant land of which we were all proud to be sons — 
if each in the recesses of his own heart pronounced names and 
called up forms which must be loved as long as remembered, 
we were not, therefore, the less happy. Man is so framed that 
a shade of sadness gives a finer touch to all his pure enjoy- 
ments. There is something cruel and inhuman in a mirth 
which shakes off all communion with sorrow. We are natur- 
ally swayed by contending emotions. Regret tempers the self- 
ish ardor of hope ; hope deprives regret of its bitterest pang ; 
and glances of pleasure never gleam so brightly as through the 
medium of a tear. 

Our conversation that evening was not of long continuance. 
One by one we stretched out to repose in anticipation of the 
labors of the next day, and a general silence soon prevailed. 
The fire had gone out, our guides and attendants had sought 
shelter from the wind in little nooks formed by the zembeels 
and bean-bags, and the whole encampment would probably have 
been soon wrapped in slumber, had not the report of a gun 
close at hand among the palm-trees aroused us.* It was pretty 
evident that some evil-disposed person had crept up behind the 

* The Bedawins and our boys always maintained that two shots were 
fired, but we heard only one. 



ATTEMPT AT ASSASSINATION APOLOGY. 225 

wall and taken a shot at the Nasara ; luckily he could not 
aim, and was too cowardly to try his fortune a second time. 
However, Mr. Lamport, who was the first to understand what 
was going on, put out the lantern at once, for there was no 
knowing how many ruffians, were prowling about anxious to 
make a target of us, and we quietly waited events, making our 
preparations in silence to resist any attack unless of over- 
whelming numbers. Presently a crowd of people were heard 
coming with loud cries from the direction of Siwah, and we 
could soon distinguish the name of Yiinus several times re- 
peated. It appeared that his friends within the city had heard 
the report, and being aware of the feeling that existed against 
us, because we were Christians, and against him for bringing 
us, had come out to see what was the matter. They expressed 
great sorrow at what had taken place, and some of them re- 
solved to remain all night in the neighborhood of the tent. We 
now understood that there was a large party at Siwah, who, if 
they had their will, would massacre us at once ; and unpleasant 
reports reached us that twenty-four individuals had leagued 
together to waylay us on our return towards Garah. However, 
sleep being absolutely essential, we arranged our carpet-bags 
so as to protect us as much as possible, in case half a dozen 
slugs should intrude into the tent, and soon forgot the incivility 
of which we had been the objects. 

In the morning there was of course great talk of last night's 
affair, but as talking would not mend matters, we thought it 
better to reserve speculation till we were on the move, and 
hastened our departure. As usual, however, the Bedawinshad 
left a great part of the arrangements to the very last ; and it 
was, moreover, only when every thing else was ready that our 
XO* 



226 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

bread arrived from the " bakery." It was eight o'clock before 
we could get all our traps into the zernbeels, and the zembeels 
on the camels. Of these animals we had seven, live from 
Abusir, one from Mudar, and one purchased by Yunus for 
seventeen dollars at Siwah. Three, however, were quite suffi- 
cient for our traps : Wahsa's camel being laden with dates on 
his own account, and our guides also engaging in a little specu- 
lation in oil and fruit. 

We at length shook the dust off our feet and left this inhos- 
pitable place, after saying farewell to the black Showish, who 
was one of the few civil persons we had met with, and sending 
our respects to Sheikh Yusuf. We had not gone above a mile 
through the palm-groves when a breathless messenger came up 
to beg us to stop, for the Sheikhs were coming out in a body 
to have an interview. We halted in a shady spot, rather an- 
noyed at the delay, but curious to know what these people, 
after keeping themselves out of the way so long, now wanted 
v/ith us. Presently up they came, almost at a run — a row af 
old fellows tucking up their white burnooses, puffing away, 
shaking their beards, and sweating like bulls. They had evi- 
dently been frightened by our departure, thinking it to be on 
account of the attempt at assassination the previous night, and 
were beginning to reflect on the consequences of the reception 
they had given us. They speechified and palavered some time, 
and faintly expressed a desire that we'should return. We said 
very little to them, except that we were not at ail satisfied with 
our treatment. We acknowledged, however, our obligations 
to Sheikh Yusuf, who really seemed vexed, and would have 
treated us to another edition of firstly, secondly, thirdly, and 
lastly, had not Yunus interrupted him, and laying his hand on 



DEPAR.TURE FROM THE OASIS. 227 

his shoulder, told him it was of no use talking, the point essen- 
tial now being, that we should get back in safety, which we 
were not likely to do if their people were resolved to lay an 
ambuscade for us. " We don't want words," he said, " but 
deeds. If you are sorry for what has happened, send us a 
dozen guns {i. e. men with guns) as an escort." They assured 
him that nothing should befall us, and we left them looking at 
each other under the tree. 

When we reached the eastern extremity of the Oasis some 
men employed in the fields gave us a few parting curses, at 
which we were rather surprised, as the country people had 
been hitherto civil. Without pausing to inquire the reason, we 
proceeded a little farther and stopped for our first frugal meal 
on the homeward journey. Whilst we were discussing it, a 
horseman came riding up the valley towards us ; he wore a 
white burnoose and a tarboosh, and had a gun and fixed bayo- 
net slung at his back, seeming, indeed, to be altogether the 
most respectable individual we had seen. He turned out to be 
Sheikh Mansoor, come out to make his separate excuse, and 
talked very big about answering for our lives with his own in 
case we would return ; promising, too, that we should be 
allowed to enter his quarter of the town, and so on. But we 
had had enough of Siwah, and left him in the midst of his tardy 
apologies. For a short time longer the valley, with its green 
islands, its lakes, and its hills, remained still in sight ; but our 
track soon turned northward, and as we moved, the beautiful 
scene seemed to fly swiftly away behind the gigantic rook of 
Om-el-Yus, which in a few minutes hid it from us, most pro- 
bably for ever. As if by magic we found ourselves again 
transported into the realms of desolation ; on every side there 



228 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

was nothing but rock, sand, sky, and light, and yet we felt 
none of that horror which some travellers have affected at the 
bare sight of the desert. The air was pure, our. spirits were 
buoyant ; we were glad to escape from a land inhabited by so 
inhospitable a race, and we looked forward, not without 
pleasure, to enjoying some of the comforts of civilization in less 
than a fortnight.* 

This day we rode, in a general E. N. E. direction, for ten 
hours, and halted near the copses of Om Eayme some time 
after nightfall. The cold was very great, and next morning 
we found the thermometer down to 58° at half past five, when 
we started. 

Having traversed a valley strewed with large pieces of 
flint we reached the Nugb-el-Mejebbery, and ascending to the 
table-land that forms the summit of the ridge dividing Garah 
from Siwah, proceeded in an easterly direction. In the course 
of the morning we saw some men running behind us, and their 
numbers being magnified by the mirage, our Bedawins took it 
into their heads that we were pursued. They accordingly 
prepared an ambuscade behind some hillocks, but it soon 
turned out that the new comers were a slave and three house- 
hold servants of Sheikh Mansoor, sent as an escort, or rather 
as a guard of honor to appease us. They said there had been 
great dispute in the town about us after our departure, and 
that there had even been a fight between the moderate and the 
fanatical parties. 

* Om-el-Yus, by compass, is exactly east of Edrar Amelal, and N, E. 
of Edrar Abou Bryk. The distance between the former two is about sixteen 
miles ; between the latter two, say seven. 



RELIEF TO THE MONOTONOUS JOURNEY. 229 

Our mode of travelling was now far less agreeable than 
that adopted in going. There was no moon, and we were com- 
pelled therefore to keep moving almost without a pause all 
day. We thus missed entirely those comfortable stoppages 
when we had time to set up the tent and divide the work by a 
rest of five or six hours. These formed some of the most 
agreeable parts of our outward journey, and, indeed, more than 
counterbalanced all the fatigue we experienced ; their influence 
even was more than momentary. Our affections for particular 
localities are of rapid growth, and take root immediately 
wherever pleasing sensations have been experienced. Thus 
every spot that had been the scene of one of these delightful 
halts was remembered and gladly recognized on our way home. 
" Here was the tent, and here the donkeys were tethered, and 
here the Bedawins reared an extempore shelter;" these remi- 
niscences, however faintly they resemble those we cherish of 
places where strong feelings have developed themselves, were 
quite sufficient to relieve for a time the monotony of our forced 
march. We contrived also to snatch some agreeable moments 
in one part of the country, where a few thorn bushes occurred 
here and there, by hurrying on ahead and enjoying the thin 
shade they afforded. A projecting ledge of rock sometimes 
proved still more useful, and we would stretch ourselves out, 
light our pipes, and make ourselves comfortable until the little 
kafila came in sight. 

The scenery on these occasions was often sufficiently strik- 
ing to interest the eye, sometimes even beautiful. Brilliant 
tints often presented themselves in a variety which we could 
scarcely expect mere barrenness to assume. In the midst of 
such scenes a group of camels moving slowly up forms a pic- 



230 ADVENTTOES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

turesque object enough ; but I could not help observing how- 
erroneous are the ideas of most painters as to the appearance 
which a caravan usually presents. There seems to be a tra- 
dition among them ; they habitually bring in their camels fol- 
lowing each other in a long unbroken file, just as they are to 
be seen in the streets of Eastern towns, where, that they may 
not quite block the way, the tail of one is tied to the nose of the 
other. In the desert, where they are allowed to take advantage 
of any scrap of vegetation that may occur, they are urged on 
— at least such was the case in every instance that came under 
my notice — in irregular droves, sometimes spreading over a 
wide extent. Those intrusted with their guidance are con- 
constantly obliged to be on the watch to collect them if they 
scatter too much, now whistling, now grunting, now crying 
" Zah ! zah !" plying the stick or hanging on by the tail as by 
a rudder. I have mentioned in a former page that the camel 
roars and complains when he is either loaded or unloaded ; I 
will add, that he otherwise exhibits great indocility. To make 
him kneel, the drivers are obliged to emit the guttural sound 
" Cheh ! cheh !" about fifty times, to beat his shins and hang 
upon his neck ; and when they have him down, to stand upon 
his bent knees whilst they remove any article they may want. 
He often struggles furiously to get up. 

To return. The table-land we were traversing was almost 
perfectly level and barren. We rested for an hour or so in the 
burning sun at mid-day, and then proceeded. This evening, 
although we were on an extremely elevated spot and very far 
from water, the air was filled with a light mist, the origin of 
which we could not ascertain. We proceeded, slightly diverg- 
ing to E. N. E., by the aid of the lantern, until 7 p. m., when 



QUARREL WITH THE GUIDE. 231 

we halted, after having travelled that day eleven hours and a 
half. 

Octoler 9tJi. — We were off this naorning, as usual, by half 
past five, and turning N. N. E. came in sight of the Milky 
Mountains, nearly thirty miles distant, immediately after enter- 
ing Nugb-ei"Abiad, which we had ascended by night in com- 
ing. It is a pass remarkable for the whiteness of its rocks, and 
is strewed with shells, petrifactions, and talc, intermingled with 
small black stones that appear to be of volcanic origin. This 
day began our serious quarrel with Sheikh Yunus. We had 
clambered down the steep descents which had given us so much 
trouble during our outward journey, and having reached the 
lower table-land that leads to the edge of Garah valley, deter- 
mined to push on and arrive as soon as possible at the date 
trees. Our so doing, without asking the old gentleman's ad- 
vice, displeased him excessively, and we could see by the 
scowls with which he left us, after moving by our side for some 
time and endeavoring to play off the stale device of '' robbers 
ahead," that he would, if possible, make us feel the full weight 
of his indignation. On we went, however, for several hours 
over the plain, and at length reached the valley, and descend- 
ing soon found ourselves beneath a huge clump loaded with fine 
fruit. Here we made a delicious meal, and when we were 
satisfied advanced to Am Paris to give the donkeys a drink. 
From this place we made our way to the western, side of the 
village, which we were as glad to reach as on the first occasion, 
and throwing ourselves down in the shade, determined to have 
a good rest that day, as, although we reached at half past 
twelve, we were not to start until the following morning. 

When Yunus came up, he could not keep down his ill-tem- 



232 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

per, and we had a regular row with him, which ended in his 
threatening to go away with liis camels and leave us to make 
our way back to Egypt as best we might. As this arrange- 
ment would have suited neither of us, mutual concessions ensu- 
ed ; but it was not to be expected that very agreeable feelings 
should exist in our minds towards the surly old wretch. 



FORCED MARCH TO ALEXAP^DRIA. 233 



CHAPTER XYI. 

Forced March to Alexandria — Sufferings from Hunger and Thirst — Various 
Incidents — our Kafila once more in danger of being robbed — Safe arrival 
at Abusir. 

On the morning of October the 10th, having added two baskets 
of fresh dates and one stewed, fowl to our provisions, we bade 
farewell to Sheikh Abd-el-Sayed and started from Garah at 7 
A.M. At mid-day we reached the bottom of the Gour-el-La- 
ban Pass and halted under the shade of a precipice for about 
half an hour, whilst the camels, in order that no time might be 
lost, went on ahead. We soon regained the lost ground by a 
gallop over such a road that it was a miracle some of us did 
not get a break-neck fall. This was the system we adopted 
throughout the rest of the journey. 

In the pass we noticed an immense number of petrifactions, 
fossil shells, pieces of coral, &c , interspersed with vast quan- 
tities of black stones, some as large as the fist, others as small 
as split peas. They appeared to have been strewn there by a 
volcano. Mr. Forty made a collection of various specimens ; 
but did not succeed in bringing the whole back in safety, 
as the Bedawin maliciously threw a great portion out of the 



234 ABVENTTJRES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

baskets. For my own part I have never had a propensity to 
collect curiosities, and omitted even to bring back a piece of 
alabaster from the temple of Jupiter Ammon as a relic. 

We crossed the Milky Mountains during the afternoon and 
halted for the night at their base, having made eleven hours. 
During this ride we passed the bed of the dried lake I have 
before mentioned. It is of considerable extent, and the edges 
are strewed with innumerable small black stones like those in 
the pass above. 

October llth. — We started at half past five, and having 
travelled thirteen hours halted in the Nugb-el-Ghrab, well 
wearied out. This was the first night of the new moon that 
cheered the latter part of our path by the pale light of her thin 
silver crescent. The cold was excessive at this bivouac, and 
prevented some of us from sleeping. I remember having to 
leave the shelter of the row of zembeels to catch two rascally 
donkeys that had strayed away into the valley, and informed 
us of the fact by a distant bray. 

Octoder I2l.h. — This day we ascended the great pass of the 
Crow, and retracing our steps almost exactly along the old road 
passed Hooshm el Gaood, and halted after eleven hours' work 
near the place where we had formerly lost our way.* 

October ISth. — Six hours and a half brought us to Haldeh. 
I and Longshaw pushed on to reach the well, and found the 
shepherd vigorously waterting his sheep and goats. With the 
assistance of his confederate below he filled and refilled a large 

* From Garah to Gour-el-Caban, nearly eight hours, our dh-ection was 
N. N. E. ; from thence to Nugb-el-Ghr^b, about fifieen hours, N. E. ; up 
the Pass, North ; then agam N. E. ; and then nearly North. 



HALT TO COOK. 235 

skin bag stretched on a hoop and used as a trough, with as- 
tonishing rapidity. The sheep approached three or four at a 
time, drank a little, and went away of thsir own accord, al- 
though this is a luxury they only enjoy once in two days. 
Yunus, on coming up, put a stop to this proceeding, rightly 
inferring that the water was scanty, and that the man had begun 
to draw it only on getting sight of us in the distance. There 
was scarcely enough left to afford us a small supply and wa- 
ter our animals, which had to go without wetting their lips for 
the next two days. The Marabut seemed at first a little sulky 
at being scolded ; but was restored to contentment by our pur- 
chasing a sheep for fifty piastres, having it killed, and giving 
him' the head. To show his gratitude, he informed us that a 
body of seventy mounted robbers were hovering in the neigh- 
borhood ; and it was instantly surmised that, having heard 
of our presence in those regions, they had come for the very 
purpose of waylaying us. Possibly it was this intelligence that 
determined Yunus not to return in the direction of Mudar. 

From Haldeh accordingly we took a northeast by east di- 
rection, different from our route in going ; but fell in, in less 
than three hours, with the Wady Faragh. Here the Beda- 
wins, who had not tasted fresh meat for a long time, resolved 
to stop and cook. We made no objection, and old Yunus was 
at work, cutting up the carcass with a sort of hatchet, of which 
the cutting part was not above an inch and a half wide, and 
was curved like a gouge or auger ; and putting it into an 
earthen pot that now made its appearance. A large fire of 
dried wood and camel's dung was soon kindled ; and very 
shortly four plates covered with huge gobbets highly peppered 
were set before us. I shall say nothing about the tenderness 



236 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

of the meat ; suffice it to remark that we did succeed in tear- 
ino- it to pieces with our teeth and swallowing some pounds, 
all the while anathematizing old Barabbas, alias Yunus, who 
thought more of quantity than quality, for picking out a big old 
ram. 

October lUh. — This day we started at 6 a.m. and soon got 
on a level stony plain, covered with millions of white snail 
shells. An hour's rest was granted us at noon, after which we 
went along again, cursing the monotony of the road. At length 
it seemed likely to become varied and interesting enough ; for 
eleven men made their appearance, coming down upon us in a 
long line finger on trigger. We performed some martial ma- 
noeuvres, but did not like the aspect of things. Our guides all 
seemed to feel queer ; and Wahsa absolutely looked impressive. 
Yunus, who after all did not lack courage, went to meet the 
new comers with his gun thrust forward as usual ; and the ap- 
proaching party dispatched a herald to explain their intentions 
or ascertain ours. The greeting was by no means friendly. 
Thei'e was no shaking of hands or embracing ; and these two 
interesting objects stood looking at each other like two wild cats 
that have met on the branch of a tree, neither liking to spring 
first. At length the others came up, and one of them turned 
out to be a friend of Yunus, who seemed to be pretty uni- 
versally known in these parts. So amicable instead of hostile 
hugs took place ; and eleven ill-looking ruffians mixed with our 
caravan crying out for dates and water. Afier examining our 
guns and donkeys with the eyes of connoisseurvS, and evidently 
regretting that the duties of friendship prevented them from 
stripping us to the skin, they stopped behind and relieved us of 
thuir company, at which we were not sorry; for although 



CATABATHMUS A CARAVAN. 237 

of course we felt very heroic, it seemed not advisable to fight 
against such odds. Five or six other men coming in a different 
direction rather confirmed us in this idea. We stopped not far 
from a solitary tomb on a small mound at a little past six, hav- 
ing been on the move eleven hours. 

In the afternoon of this day a cluster of hills appeared on 
the horizon in front, to the left of our track. These were 
pointed out to us as rising near Mudar ; and in fact occupy the 
base of Ras Kenais. 

Next morning we were in the saddle before sunrise, and soon 
parted with Wahsa, who left us to return to his own encamp- 
ment. I ought to mention that our party had been further in- 
creased at Siwah by a poor invalid Arab, who had started from 
Egypt on a visit to his brother at some place far to the west, 
and was now on his return with a fever about him. 

In about an hour we passed some gulleys, and coming un- 
expectedly to the end of the table-land, obtained a sudden view 
of the sea. We were equally delighted at the prospect with 
the Greeks in the Anabasis; and soon recognizing Gatta Bay, 
found that we were nearly eight hours nearer Alexandria than 
when we left the coast on our way out. We descended at 7 
A.M. the steep sides of the Catabathmus, called by the Arabs 
Medower-er-Rokbah ; and at 9 a.m. reached the well of Ghoo- 
kah, sunk in the level valley. It is deep, and two men were 
employed drawing the rope over a roller to water a herd of 
camels that was halting in the neighborhood. We stopped an 
hour and a half, and then proceeded east-southeast along a val- 
ley parallel with the sea, but further inland than that we had 
followed in coming. At 3 p.m. we passed the well or rather 
cistern of El- Ameer, cut in the solid rock and dry in summer. 



238 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

Near sunset we came up with a large caravan going to fetch 
wheat from Alexandria: and halted awhile, after which we 
proceeded in company until 8 p.m., having made eleven hours 
of actual travelling that day. The cold being intense, we de- 
termined to abandon our Spartan hardihood this night and to 
set up the tent. 

I have often, in the course of this volume, had occasion to 
mention the going down of the children of the Desert into the 
land of Egypt for wheat ; this is now a regular practice. Ev- 
ery autumn the young men of each tribe gather all their spare 
camels and travel many hundreds of miles, in order to bring 
back a few sacks of grain to eke out the produce of the un- 
kindly soil of their own valleys. All the markets on the banks 
of the Nile are at that time filled with wild-looking men, who 
bring blankets, woven in their tents, from the wool of their 
flocks, or dates from the Oases, or more commonly good round 
dollars, to give in exchange for what they require. The sons 
of Jacob, it will readily occur to the reader, brought money 
only for the purchase of wherewith to relieve the famine that 
had fallen on their people. 

It not unfrequently happens that a great scarcity perma- 
nently displaces the head-quarters of a tribe. There has been 
a tendency of late years among many of the Bedawins to draw 
nearer and nearer to the frontiers of Egypt ; and some of them 
have even built houses on the limits of the valley of the Nile 
and taken to cultivation. Travellers in Egypt may, without 
trouble, convince themselves of this fact on their way to the 
Pyramids of Gizeh, the monopoly of the exhibition of which 
they will find in the hands of a village of Bedawin agricultu- 
rists ; but it is a mistake to suppose, as some seem to do, that 



WANDERING CHARACTER OF THE BEDAWINS. 239 

this is an abnormal case. The confines of the whole province 
of Baharah, especially near Damanhour, have been invaded in 
the same manner. Sometimes the process of transition from 
the nomadic to the stationary state is but half gone through ; 
tents and stone or mud houses are found intermixed. Probably 
the wandering instincts so deeply implanted in this race may 
never be wholly uprooted, and at some future day they may 
again take to the desert. On one occasion, " Abram went 
down into Egypt to sojourn there ; for the famine was grievous 
in the land 3" and I have no doubt the difficulty of finding sub- 
sistence in their old haunts had much to do with bringing the 
Bedawins to attempt settlements in Egypt. 

These were the speculations that suggested themselves as 
we looked forth from our tent door, and saw by the last rays of 
the setting moon some thirty or forty Bedawins occupying, in 
circular groups, the slope of the hill, whilst nearly a hundred 
camels were browsing around. The aspect of the country 
was like that of a vast heath or down stretching away on all 
hands in immense black undulations. Being sleepless in spite 
of fatigue, I went forth and stood apart for some time. It wa8 
curious to observe how rapidly the bustle subsided — the men 
disappearing one by one as the evening meal was concluded, 
and stretching themselves among the baggage to sleep ; the 
camels kneeling down to rest, but continuing for a long time 
to keep up a tremendous chumping. By the light of the stars 
I could at length distinguish nothing but our tent, as it shook, 
and trembled, and strained on its cords beneath a strong north 
wind ; I retired late under its shelter. On rising I found that 
our friends had moved off long before daylight. With the 
usual improvidence of Bedawins, they had lingered and loitered 



240 AUVENTUKES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

during the beginning of their journey ; and now, being short 
of provisions, were compelled to n:iake sixteen hours a day. 

October 16th. — We proceeded over an undulating plain ; the 
day was windy and cloudy, and we soon saw showers approach- 
ing, and heard their footsteps pattering on the hollow-sounding 
desert. Several flocks of white geese flew over head before 
and during the rain. In less than four hours we had passed 
the ruins of Kasr Gemaima, and halted about seven or eight 
miles from the sea on a line with the well of El-Emriim. This 
was the place where we had left a supply of beans for our 
donkeys ; and we had to wait for them to be fetched as well as 
whilst the poor animals went to drink. 

During this halt I returned on foot to the ruin above men- 
tioned. It was formerly a massive quadrangular stone tower, 
with two lower rooms, one probably serving as an entrance- 
hall ; it is about thirty paces square, and the wall must have 
been at least ten feet in thickness. It was built of large hewn 
stones, most of which are now weather-worn and shattered. 
There are no traces of inscriptions or architectural ornaments. 
From its position on the crest of a steep hill overlooking the 
road we came by, I should think it was erected for the protec- 
tion of the caravan-road to the Oasis, as well as that to Gyrene. 
Outside on the west is a vast cistern cut out of the solid rock, 
with a narrow opening at top and widening gradually as it de- 
scends. To the east is a square cistern like that at Selem, 
broken in at one corner. The entrance is nearly choked up 
with a carob-tree ; but I managed to get down and astonish a 
huge number of frightfully ugly lizards and a black scorpion 
that slunk into its hole at the sight of a Frank. In one corner 
was the mouth of a well choked up with great stones. 



RUINS OF A STONE TOWER. 241 

I am of opinion that there were anciently two roads through 
this province ; the upper and more level by which we returned, 
frequented, I suppose, by caravans only in winter, when the 
rock cisterns under the protection of the forts were full of 
water ; the lower one following the windings of the coast, 
where there are undried wells at all seasons of the year. I 
could not help, whilst contemplating this ruin, giving way once 
more to a feeling that had often been aroused in the course of 
the journey — one of regret, namely, at beholding the triumph 
of desolation and the unequivocal signs of the victory of bar- 
barism. And I was confirmed in the idea which must present 
itself to all who transgress the boundaries of the narrow circle 
of our young civilization and expand their view over the senile 
regions of the earth, that " there is a tide in the affairs of 
men ;" that we advance and retreat, never reaching the goal 
towards which we tend, and slipping back sometimes even 
when we fancy we are progressing. Let those who still dream 
of the perfectibility of the human species, go to the Libyan 
Desert and turn up its soil, and they will find the skeleton of a 
civilization now as much extinct as the mammoth or the mas- 
todon, 

I returned to my companions and found preparations 
making for a grand repast. We had a small tin of ox-tail 
soup, which it was proposed to dilute with water, mix with 
biscuit, and warm over a fire of camel's dung. What was 
said was done ; and we enjoyed our meal excessively. Our 
donkeys at length returned, after six hours' absence, with the 
beans and their bellies full of water. The man who had acted 
as our store-keeper also came for his present ; and, having 
11 



242 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

settled with him, we started, and managed to make four hours 
more that evenhig at a rapid pace. 

We were off on the 17th very early, and moved nearly all 
day in sight of the Marabut, Sheikh Abd-er- Rahman. We 
had been lately enlivened by the sight of a hare : during this 
ride we saw a field-hen and a tortoise. Towards evening we 
sighted the Salt Lakes ; but left them to the north at night. 

October l&th. — Early this morning we crossed over a ridge 
of hills, and coming to the eastern end of the Salt Lakes, soon 
entered the long valley that leads without a break to Alexan- 
dria. We watered at one of the wells of Shemaimah and then 
proceeded to Easr-el-Amayd, the Saracenic structure we 
passed at night on our way out. It is a four-sided building, 
with a square tower or ring projecting from the centre of each 
face. The entrance is low and formed of thin blocks of red 
granite : it looks southward, and is placed in an arched niche, 
over which there is an inscription beautifully preserved, ex- 
plaining that this castle was built by Ahmed-el-Tahir-el-Yas- 
muri, under the orders of Bibars, Sultan of Egypt, whose arms 
appear beneath in the shape of two lions rampant. Similar 
ones occur on a bridge at Cairo, attributed to the same monarch. 
All the rooms within are arched. There are two stories ; and 
I am told that this building is conspicuous at a great distance 
out at sea, although it is not usually mentioned as a landmark. 

Leaving this place we pushed on for Abusir, which we 
reached after a hard ride at about seven o'clock, having tra- 
velled in the last two days twenty-two hours and a half. The 
worthy old Nazir seemed overjoyed to see us. The news of 
our having been shot at by the Siwahis had travelled to him, 



ARRIVAL AT ALEXANDRIA. 343 

gaining volume as it proceeded, by some caravan ; and he was 
rather surprised at finding the party with the full complement 
of legs, arms, and eyes ! He was sharp enough, however, to 
understand that a good meal would be the best way of bidding 
us welcome and expressing his sympathy ; and so he bustled 
about with right good will to prepare a supper. 

Next morning we started for Alexandria, and, excluding a 
stoppage at the springs half way, made the distance in less 
than eight hours. Our poor donkeys seemed to know that they 
were near their journey's end, and went most willingly, so 
that we came into the Minsheyeh in capital style, very ragged, 
very dirty, very much burnt, and very hairy, much to the 
surprise of our friends, who expected us to be devoured by the 
cannibals. 

We got out of Siwah in the year of our Lord one thousand 
eight hundred and forty-seven, on the seventh day of October, 
about eight o'clock in the morning, and reached Alexandria at 
four in the afternoon of the nineteenth, having been therefore 
twelve days and eight hours on the journey, or one hundred 
and thirty-two hours and thirty-five minutes of actual travelling. 
Our first sentiment on completing this journey was of course 
one of pleasure ; but a feeling of natural regret began soon to 
steal into our minds. We had grown accustome-d to the free 
and wild ways of the Desert; and seemed scarcely to breathe 
so freely amidst streets and houses. The moments of keen 
enjoyment we had experienced came back upon us with full 
force, invested with all the enchantment of distance ; and 
although doubtless no one of us ever seriously contemplated 
setting up a tent as a permanent habitation and plunging amidst 
all the disagreeable realities of Arab life, yet there are times. 



244 ADVENTURES IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 

perhaps, when we could wish to realize the idea of the poet, 
who says : 

" Oh ! that the Desert were my dwelHng-pIace, 
With one fair spirit for my minister !" 



I AM indebted to the kindness of David L. Price, Esq., a chemist ol distin- 
guished abiUties, for the following analysis of the water of Siwah: — 

" The water, which was brought to this country in a well-secured wine- 
bottle, emitted on being uncorked a very perceptible odor of the gas known 
as sulphuretted hydrogen, and which was made manifest on applying the 
usual test for the same. Its presence may be attributed to a small quantity 
of organic matter, which had subsided in the bottle, having undergone de- 
composition. Compared with other waters (I will select the water of the 
Thames before it reaches the vicinity of London), it has a greater density, 
which I have found to be r0015, whereas the Thames has a density of 
1.0003, thus indicating that it holds a larger amount of solid matter in solu- 
tion. I have found that 100 parts of it contain 0,23950 (the Thames water 
0,032932) of solid constituents: of these, 0,1615 are common salt. It 
might be inferred from this large amount of common salt, that its taste 
would be saline, which is however not the case, it being of a very agreea- 
ble and somewhat sweetish nature. The remainder of the solid matter is 
composed of potassa salts, sulphate of lime, carbonates of lime and magne- 
sia, silica, and a small quantity of organic matter." 



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A.nd the succeeding volumes will be issued on the first day of each month, until completed, 

as follows: 



Knickerhocker's New-York, in one 

volume. 
The Sketch Book, in one volwne. 
Tales of a Traveler, in one volume. 
Bracebridge Hall, in one volume. 
The Conquest of Grenada, in one 

volume. 
The Alhambra, in one volume. 
The Spanish Legends, in one volume. 



The Crayon Miscellany, in one vol. — 
Abhotsford, Newstead, The Prai- 
ries, i^C. 

Life and Voyages of Columbus, and 
The Companions of Columbus. 3 
vols. Maps, i^c. 

Adventures of Captain Bonneville, 
one vol. 

Astoria, one volume. 



THE ILLUSTRATED SKETCH-BOOK. 

Now Ready, 

THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
BY WASHINGTON IRVING. 

One volume square octavo. 
Illustrated with a Series of highly-finished Engravings on wood, from designs by Darley, 
engraved in the best style by Childs, Herrick, &c This edition is printed on paper of the finest 
quality, similar in size and style to the new edition of " Halleck's Poems." 

THE ILLUSTRATED KNICKERBOCKER, 

With a Series of Original designs, in 1 vol. 8vo., is also in preparation. 

MR. IRVING'S NEW WORKS 

Now nearly ready for the press : including 

The Life of Mohammed ; The Life of Washington ; new 
volumes of Miscellanies, Biographies, &c. 

*:jt* This being the first uniform and complete edition of Mr. Irving's works, either in this 
country or in Europe, the publisher confidently believes that the undertaking will meet with a 
prompt and cordial response. To say tliis, is perhaps superfluous and impertinent ; for it is a truism, 
that no Jimcricfin book-case (not to say library) can be well filled without the works of Washington 
Irvma ; while the English language itself comprises no pu'er nioJols of composition. 

4 . 



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